Underrated joys

[partyetiquette]

Due to a combination of illness and injury, I haven't been able to have a shower or bath for 10 days. Until last night when I finally could. Oh my gosh it was heaven and I felt so lucky to be able to do it again. It came close to my first bath at home after an ill thought out period of rough sleeping when I was a silly teenager. I will always remember how that first bath at home felt. A friend is struggling with mobility and the only thing he wants to do is to be able to walk to his local shop again. What do you do everyday that you take for granted?

I get up earlier than I have to in the summer to enjoy watching the birds use the feeder whilst having a cup of tea.

An electric blanket! My parents couldn’t afford effective heating, so I grew up in a house that was always cold. Oh how I love my warm bed.

Also, I sometimes hear church bells where I live. I don’t go to church, but I love the sound.

This sounds lovely. These summer mornings in the garden are lovely aren't they

I have a safe, secure home. I speak to dozens of people every week that do not. I've also lived it. Having a mortgage you can afford, bills you can afford - no matter how little you have for luxuries after - is a goddamn privilege in today's world.

Simply having this makes me feel incredibly lucky... I don't take anything for granted. I've seen the other side.

I appreciate the days I’m not working, and don’t have to be somewhere early, so I can scroll MN, watch something on TV I’ve already seen hundreds of times, and have mid morning coffee still in my PJ’s. That feels like a luxury to me.

Sleeping through the night! I’m recovering from an 18 month period of lower back pain/sciatica during which I could only sleep in certain positions and was frequently interrupted by pain. A good night’s sleep makes everything better!

I'm loving these . I am trying to make an effort to be more grateful. I'm living a life now, that as a child, I would not think I could have. Financial security, home is secure etc I've recently deleted all social media and suddenly all the comparisons have gone and I have space to see what I have. I'm loving it

Wow yes, not being in pain after being in pain for a long time is amazing isn't it

I once had blood clots on both lungs.
So having a really big breath, especially outside, is lovely.

I made the most perfect toast this morning. Just the right shade, just the right amount of butter. I'm scared it will never be replicated.

A vase of flowers, calendula at the moment.

When my DH died I shat myself about money. I was brought up in a low-income family and still have the "poor" mindset. I didn't buy flowers for ages despite the objectively financially comfortable state I was and am in.

Unless the flowers are ugly or overpriced, they are always there now. It took a long time to take it for granted.

Putting washing on the line is my thing, it means that the weather's good and my clothes will smell lovely

When someone makes you a cup of tea and the milk-tea ratio is just right, and you pause before drinking it just long enough that it is the perfect temperature the whole way through. Bliss.

I live with chronic and frequent migraine, so I can never not appreciate the fleeting joy of not being in horrendous pain for a day or two. That is also manna from heaven!

An afternoon bath. Once a week when my toddler is with parents I often have a bubble bath, with snacks and a cold drink in the middle of the day. I read a book or magazine, bliss. I didn’t have a working bath in my old house, you had to faff with the boiler and the taps just to get a tiny bit of hot water so now to just run a bath feels like a luxury.

Sipping a cup of tea in my own garden, I could never go back to an apartment with no private outdoor space.

An underrated joy of mine (which lots of people think is odd, but we love it) is that I love to hear my DH wrapping my presents. He's wrapping away, and I'm by his side with a sleep mask over my eyes so I can't see what I'm going to get. He likes to tease me about what my gifts are. I enjoy this almost as much as opening them later.

I am in this phase now and very much looking forward to coming out at the other end. It’s so horrible to be woken up by pain.

For me, it’s been keeping pet ducks in the garden. They’re mesmerising: they bimble about with their big flippered feet making little honking noises of happiness; they’re ungainly and clumsy and will trip over a paving slab if they step on it at the wrong angle; the whole flock shares a brain cell and whoever has it at any one time leads a procession of where it wants to go with the others mindlessly following; they sneeze in a sneezy way I didn’t previously know ducks sneezed. Probably also wrapped up in there is the underrated joy of just getting up early and sitting in the garden with them with a coffee before work.

I'm a church bellringer, thanks for your appreciation!

That moment when you have your ears syringed. You don't realise how much your hearing is affected until you really need to get them unblocked. It's like a new life!!

The first daffodil.

It's not that I don't like winter. On the contrary, I love the change of seasons and the weather they bring.

But the first daffodil...

I love a shower. I am always grateful to live in this era rather than previous ones when such things just didn’t exist. The idea of working down a mine or being a fisherman and not having access to a shower or even a good source of hot water makes my skin crawl!
I am grateful for my body. I may not be slim, I may not be supple or that fit but it does everything it needs to do on a day to day basis. I spend a lot time trying to lose weight and get fitter without appreciating my starting point. I was behind someone in the supermarket queue today who didn’t have the full use of one arm and everything was just so much more complicated.
I was grateful for the fact that, lying in bed at night, I can often hear an owl. Last night it was twit-twooing for ages and I was getting seriously annoyed with it!

I recently spent about 50p putting a hook on the wall in a spot that makes my life about 1000% more convenient.

I also get ridiculous satisfaction from using the fitted sheet folding technique that gives you a perfectly squared off package.

And basically every moment of my cats’ existence is a joy.