Today I spent the afternoon at home chatting with my nephew, and to join the celebration, we invited the chocolate oat biscuits and tea pot to join us. It was after pouring two hot cups of black tea that I decided, naturally, to dip a biscuit into my mug. What I experienced, as the rain outside poured in harmony, was delight in watching how the milk chocolate changed colour, shape and texture and how my nephew looked at me with a quirk in his eyes.

Then, I continued with the process and ate the soggy oat biscuit. While I was at it, with joyful eyes wide open, my nephew jumped in with a comment. “We aren’t the healthiest pair are we?” He said with a slip of irony.

Caught off guard, I had to think about it for a moment until some unknown force took over the show, picked up another biscuit and let out a “Mwahahahahahhaha” sound as my response. Eating the second biscuit and laughing with my nephew gave me a glimpse of what I felt was my soul running away with the situation.

So I simply responded, “this is soul food darling,” and smiled at the moment that filled me with a blast of pleasure, humour, joy and love. “We’re eating very high vibrational biscuits.” I added with my own quirk.

Of course, my nephew filled the moment with another chuckle that got me thinking again. How often did I actually look directly into the present moment and grasp all its joys and gifts, however small or large without guilt, shame or judgement? Then I remembered a very impressionable book I’d recently read which stated:

“All your life you have been taught that it is better to give than to receive. Yet you cannot give what you do not have. This is why self gratification is so important – and why it is so unfortunate that it has come to sound so ugly. Obviously, self gratification at the expense of others is not what we’re talking about here. This is not about ignoring the needs of others. Yet life should also not have to be about ignoring your own needs. Give yourself abundant pleasure, and you will have abundant pleasure to give others. “Feeling good” is the souls way of shouting “this is who I am.”

What a very honest sentiment that was, I thought to myself. So “I” took a good scan of “my” mind and the situation around me and asked myself, “am I feeling satisfied and pleased by the comical company I’m sitting in, the delicious biscuit that tickles my taste buds, the sound of the rain pouring on the dust path and the ruffled up sofa that gives way to the laughter circling it?” The answer from my soul was an astounding “yes”.

And yes, those pleasure may be momentary in their passing, consistent in their offering or here for the long haul, but the moment surely opened itself up for a sense of gratitude.

In fact, it was so pleasureable that what I would like to do is invite you to join me and my teapot and to toast life, the abundance of pleasures it offers us and the choice we have to say yes to them at will.

Here’s to life and the golden wonder of its moments.

With love, Anneka at Farmacia Barcelona