I’ve invited all of us, many times in these experiments, to notice the many and often-surprising sources of delight in any given day or week if we will take the time to pay attention to them as they come and go.  One day recently, I was sitting in Central Park on a beautiful afternoon, doing some work and generally soaking in the sounds of the birds and the fresh air.  Sitting near me on the bench where I had parked myself was a man with a large dog sleeping at his feet.  At one point, some people strolled by accompanied by two big dogs.  The canine who had been quietly sleeping near me came to live and unexpectedly sprang into action, lunging at the passing dogs.  I noticed that the leash had slipped from the man’s hands and put my foot down on it as it passed in front of me.  The man reassured me that his canine companion wasn’t aggressive, that he was quite elderly, in fact, and seemed to have a need to assert himself with other dogs from time to time. 

As the other dogs passed and quiet returned, the elderly dog returned to the bench, but instead of flopping down where he had been before, he went behind my legs, placed himself around my feet, licked my leg a few times, and promptly dropped off to sleep.  I sat there in a moment of surprise and delight at having this unexpected interaction with a dog I’d never met before.  It wasn’t an earth-shaking moment – just really sweet, and I soaked it in as one of those gifts that adds something to a day’s happenings.  As I settled into the experience on a sensory level, really letting my body absorb what was unfolding, I thoroughly enjoyed the sensations of fur around my legs, and the internal warmth that came from the companionable quality of unexpectedly sharing space with this four-legged being. 

And so, for this week’s experiment, I invite you yet again to pay attention to those small moments – or they might be big ones – that bring something nourishing your way and to take a moment to notice how the experience registers in your body.  The key here is to practice paying attention to, and savoring, supportive, delightful experience, rather than letting it pass by as just another moment in a day filled with moments. 

Remember to include the moments of delight that live in your memory.  We all have images, sensations, sounds, and thoughts of moments that nourished and supported us somewhere along the way.  These are moments we can’t lose, even when the actual time they happened is long past.  They live in us and are part of the store of good psychological food we carry around with us all the time.  If you have a day when delight doesn’t visit you from the outside world, explore what it’s like to consciously and deliberately call to mind something that, in the past, that nourishment to you.