“Pleasure for one hour, a bottle of wine. Pleasure for one year a marriage; but pleasure for a lifetime, a garden.”
Chinese Proverbs
The philosopher Epicurus defined pleasure as the absence of suffering. Imagine that. American philosopher Ernest Holmes believed that the ultimate goal of life is the complete emancipation from discord of every nature. Imagine that! I think of these ideas from time to time to remind myself to nurture little suffering-free moments in my life. It can be so simple to take a walk in the neighborhood or indulge in an ice cream sundae or spend uninterrupted time with a good book. And the benefits are immense. I have noticed that I don’t take pleasure as much as I could in the things, people and places that I take for granted. For example, seeing the sun rise over the trees I can see out of my bedroom window, because it happens so frequently, I tend to forget to take in the marvel of it. And in moments of complete abandon to the pleasure such as a sunrise, it becomes so very easy to feel the Presence.
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