Have you ever felt that certain elation of taking good care of and nurturing yourself, like when you're washing your face or getting out of the shower or eating sprouts?
Have you ever been walking along the sidewalk back to your apartment building, hating the thought of going inside on such a fine April evening, and been surprised by a rose bush in full bloom...at the corner gas station? And of course you had to take the biggest one in your hand and hold it up to your nose, and try to capture the euphoria of a single whiff and make it last longer than a second, long enough to keep you happy for the next half hour.
Have you ever peeled a mango, while sitting in a Big Pink Chair with the balcony door open in the springtime, and felt yourself ascend the levels of heaven with each crude bright-orangey-yellow slice you stuck in your mouth? Only to run into the kitchen seconds later when too much juice ran down your arm and threatened to stain The Pink Chair.
Have you ever walked the same four blocks from the Metro down 7th Street that you walk every day, and caught sight of the intersection of Indiana and 7th--the blend of people and cars and concrete and marble and green leaves and Pennsylvania Avenue and Starbucks cups and clear morning air and the Mall in the distance--and just thanked God to be alive and work where you work and live where you live?
Have you ever (and this is my biggest thrill these days) sat at
your favorite restaurant (Teaism!) for the tenth day in a row (minus the weekend), surrounded by lunchtime buzz, and savored another spoonful of salmon ochazuke with a brave morsel of wasabe, chewing and leaning back against the wall, fleeing for your life with Darby Shaw or laughing out loud (unashamedly, for you are free!) at Jake Brigance's sarcastic quips, as you turn the page of your fifth John Grisham novel in three months?Have you ever sat on the balcony of your apartment and just sat there? No book. No magazine. No laptop. Just you and the lounge chair and the silver railing and the green leafy great beyond.
Have you ever talked to the UPS man and had it be a highlight of your day? You had a real conversation with him, and it mattered, and you can remember what you talked about because your mind isn't cluttered with a thousand other conversations of the day.
Have you ever gotten a pedicure and felt like a queen? (Never fails!)
Have you ever let someone off the Metro before you or said good morning to the homeless man with the Southern accent who calls you darlin or smiled at the busboy, and felt the joy of treating people like people and not objects (for once)?
Have you ever heard the whisper of God when you're walking slowly down the street and felt that you wouldn't have if you were running?
Maybe life is more about depth than we think. Going deeper, feeling more pleasure with the things we already have rather than always looking for something new. Maybe that's what contentment means. Maybe that's the abundant life...the ability to see and enjoy to the fullest God's gifts all around us.
