I’ve been searching for a loose metaphor about delight, because, well, I love metaphors.
I was thinking about that moment when you’re overheating under the covers in bed. You move your arm or leg around and find a cool spot. It feels cool and refreshing, but you want more. You stick one of those limbs out from under the covers, and cool air washes over you. Body temperature lowers. Relief.
Is that a metaphor or just an actual delight?
Also, why don’t we have a word for this action, this thermal regulation via limb flailing?
I want something that expresses experiencing gkjkgdelight as a change in the mental landscape, a little blip of pleasure among the slog of everyday.
And then it came to me.
Think of you going about your day to day like a giant feast— a warm, filling gloppy one. This feast took a lot of time to prepare, some of it was enjoyable, much of it was tedious, possibly even stressful. The feast itself is mostly shades of brown and off-whites. Think crispy roasted turkey skin, rich gravy, dinner rolls, toasted onions allowing a bit of green bean to poke through, or charred marshmallows hiding the muffled orange of sweet potato. The texture is mostly soft and slippery: mashed potatoes, stuffing, canned green beans.
None of this is bad. It’s just so much same. And kind of heavy.
Then, along comes the zesty zing of the cranberry dish. Not only is it a brilliant pop of color, it’s a bright splash of acid, a little burst of sweet and a refreshing cool zip.
But wait there’s more.
No matter your cranberry preference--canned smooth, canned lumpy, or traditional family salad/sauce/chutney/relish—it stands alone. You can eat the cranberry dish on its own.
But it actually elevates everything around it. It shines a light on the best qualities of all of the other food on the plate: the savory of the turkey, the herby pillowiness of the stuffing, the creamy smooth of the mashed potatoes or mac and cheese. Each of these dishes are improved by the striking contrast of the bright acidity of the cranberry sauce, they are lifted from the flatness of so much similarity with a punch of pucker sweet.
Finding little delights throughout the course of your day is like that bite of cranberry sauce after a spoonful of meat and gravy. Everything seems a bit brighter and zingier. The deep heavy stuff feels a lot lighter and easier to digest.
My metaphor falls apart if you count yourself among the few who don’t do cranberry. Perhaps think of it as the salsa on your nachos? The pickles on your burger? The chutney on your curry? (I’m open to other suggestions.)
I find it helps to call out the delights as they happen. In the words of Kurt Vonnegut’s Uncle Alex “If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.”
“And I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, 'If this isn't nice, I don't know what is.” Kurt Vonnegut
I invite you to keep a little list in the notes app on your phone. Watch it grow. Call it whatever you want:
Little delights
Things that don’t suck
Cranberry moments
Cool shit
What is nice
Kurt Vonnegut would approve of this list
So, here are a few my bright pink cranberry moments from my past few days:1
After a heavy talk with Hubby about my aging parents he said “Let’s look for something that will bring us joy.” And there, in front of us, was a man on one knee proposing to his girlfriend (now fiancé).
One of those perfect cups of tea.2
While recovering from a fun night out with friends, discovering dozens of silly photos on my phone from the night before.
A walk in the woods.
The scent of salt water in the breeze.
A glass of water by the bedside when I wake up.
Finding another skein of the yarn I just ran out of and desperately need for sale of on eBay.
Hearing this song I truly love.
Jalapeno popper kolaches at Henny Penny (they don’t always have them).
I finished a small crochet project. (see above)
Rainbow striped socks.
Solving a cypher.
Selling art.
Planning a camping trip for Christmas.
Planning a camping trip for Christmas to a place called Mistletoe.
Selling more art.
A hot bath before bed.
Striped socks.
Emails from readers with their own list of delights.
Sunlight streaming through the window in the morning. (above photo)
Weird orb in photo of sun streaming through morning window. (below photo)
Autumn leaves (we don’t get many here).
Grilling Thanksgiving dinner so I could go hiking instead of spending the day basting a turkey.
Repurposing grill as bonfire pit après Thanksgiving dinner.
$3 glasses of sparkling rosé
this is an incomplete list
It’s a scientific fact that not all cups of tea are equal; some are simply better than others. You can control water temperature, amount of tea, lemon, sugar, milk, etc. Some cups just hit different.