One day spent in total joy...

I just finished reading a book called The Power of the Possible by Auriela McCarthy (http://www.aurielamccarthy.com/). I really enjoyed it and recommend it for both its insights on relationships and acceptance--something that I am working on these days--and for the enjoyable story telling which is inspiring.

At the end of the book (p. 257) Auriela writes:
One day spent in total joy, doing the things you love best--a day on the beach, for example, walking for miles on the wet sand, picking up shells, kicking the foamy waves with your toes...coming home to a good meal, a wonderful book...and falling asleep, exhausted and happy by nine o'clock in the evening...a day like this, spent without a worry in the world, has done more for the world at large than if you had spent all day writing letters of protest to your senator, focusing on all the wrongs that need to be righted.

This hit home for me because I had such a day on Saturday. It wasn't that I did anything out of the ordinary. It was just that I only did what I wanted and enjoyed every minute of it. I picked up a friend at noon and we headed down to Larkspur. I had a hair cut appointment there and my friend and I hadn't been to southern Marin in a while. I parked the car and noticed that we had time to stop at my favorite cafe, Rulli's. I ordered a latte and she had a hot cocoa with whipped cream. We shared an incredible dessert made with cream and berries. We chatted and watched the people go by.

I left her to walk down the block for my haircut. It was a good haircut and I felt pampered. My friend met me there and we headed further south to the Corte Madera shopping center. I was looking for corduroy legging/pants and there they were in Nordstrom's--in all sizes and colors. We spent some time trying them on and each bought a couple of pairs. Then we walked by all the stores decorated for Christmas and wound up at Macy's. We each found something we didn't expect at a very good price and left feeling happy and abundant.

After a few more errands we wound up in my favorite restaurant in San Rafael, The Royal Thai. Not only was the food delicious, they had my favorite dessert: mango with coconut sticky rice. I was in heaven. We laughed and chatted and both felt that we had started the holiday season in a very festive way. There was nothing super-exciting about this day, but we enjoyed every minute of it and felt grateful. It was one day spent in total joy.

Now for those of you who have read other posts in this blog, such as the one stating that the world I see holds nothing that I want, this post may seem a contradiction. All the things that brought me joy on Saturday were worldly. And it is a contradiction, though both are true. I love worldly things and this world holds nothing that I want. This is known as a paradox. I'll write more about that in another post.