What does this look like to you?
To some people, it might look like my teeny dog (Taydoh) doing what dogs do best — guarding the house with all eight pounds of fury, watching, noticing.
Taydoh is a Yorkshire terrier, so he was specifically bred to keep his eye on rodents. It’s not an accident that he perks up when the squirrels run across the hill just outside.
But some mornings, even when there are no squirrels in sight, he’ll stand at the gap in the door. Sniffing. Getting information about the morning. He’ll yawn and stretch and sniff the air some more.
So, maybe it’s more than instinct. Maybe standing by the patio door is his version of the proverbial morning coffee, a simple pleasure that helps him be happy.
What does it mean that I don’t feel cheated?
It’s been a long time since I intentionally gave myself a simple pleasure. So long, in fact, that when I snapped these photos, it struck me how odd it felt to take the time for the task.
It’s not because I mean to be particularly self-debasing. It’s because I’m so driven to do a million things that it doesn’t occur to me in the moment to slow down and have some kind of treat. (Yeah, I’m one of those people.) It’s usually only at the end of the day, when the patio door gets shut and Taydoh gets into his crate for the night, that I can think straight enough to realize 24 hours has gone by again without acting, on purpose, on any kind of ideas for a little joy.
That’s not to say I don’t have any happiness. I do. It’s just that my happiness doesn’t usually come from simple pleasures. There are exceptions, like taking these pictures or finding the perfect bit of oak twig with an acorn still on it in the park. But the fact I don’t feel cheated might mean simple pleasures aren’t necessary in big quantities for everyone. Or maybe I just haven’t pursued them enough to know what the difference might be like. At any rate, I’m left a little curious.