Simple Pleasures

August 1

Simple Pleasures
Today, as I took a walk about the church grounds on my lunch break, I stopped to look at some flowers. I sat down on a bench and started thinking of all the simple things in life we take for granted and do not notice until they are gone: a pretty flower, a beautiful sunset, a baby’s smile, sharing an ice cream cone with your child, a father’s love… How often do we get caught up in saying, “Tomorrow I will go for a walk, tomorrow I’ll visit my grandmother, tomorrow, I will take time to help a friend in need.” And then tomorrow never seems to appear and we are left with regrets.

A flower appears but briefly in our lives. First it is sown, then it is fed by the fertile soil until it blossoms with divine effervescence, and then it fades away into nothingness. Today I ask you to pick up a flower, a leaf, or a blade of grass and gaze into its essence. Ask yourselves, “By what miracle did this plant come to be?” Recall doing the same, when as a child everything seemed new and fresh and a flower was a simple pleasure to bring home to Mom.

I challenge you to take time this week in simple pleasures… pick up a flower and give it to a loved one, tell a friend or relative what they mean to you. Each person we meet is a flower that we must embrace and cherish before he/she fades away into the sunset and into our Lord’s arms in Heaven. Do not toil for fame, fortune and possessions like the rich man in today’s parable but rather do what Paul asks us to do today in Corinthians 3 and “put on a new self.” And let this new self be mindful of all the simple gifts God has given us.
God Bless, Holly Clark