So much in life can be tied to contentment and being grateful for what you have. It’s so easy to ignore those simple pleasures that happen every day. At this time, the five things that I more than likely take for granted with each sunrise yet bring me happiness and contentment would include:
COFFEE IN THE MORNING
My wife and I have developed a habit of the night before we both work, one of us prepares the coffeemaker so that we just push the button to brew it early the next morning. We would program it, but we don’t like to leave it plugged in all the time, so we have to start it manually each day. Although it takes but a minute to do, it’s just a simply gesture to show our love that is so appreciated when you’re still not quite awake and need that extra jolt!
WORKING FROM HOME
There is nothing quite like being able to jump in the shower, get around, and then grab your mug of coffee, and then simply walk downstairs to the office to kick off your workday – in your sweats.
MY DOG’S UNCONDITIONAL LOVE
Prior posts may have alluded to this, but there was once a time when my wife and I contemplated getting a pet, with my voice strenuously reminding her that we were “dog people”. When our daughter was 5 or 6 years old, and we tended to travel to Gamma and Papa’s out of state quite often for visits, we eventually landed on a cat as her first pet due to the self-sufficiency over a weekend that a cat possesses. “Hutchess” (the choice of that name could be the subject of its own post) was a gray tabby cat and literally put up with being pushed around in a stroller and cradled like a baby for years. Later, our then 15-year-old fell in love with a beautiful yellow kitten she named “Pemberley” (she was enthralled at the time with Jane Austen’s “Pride & Prejudice”).
As teenagers will do, our girl graduated and went off to college. A year or two into that era, the wife and I adopted a Pembroke Welsh Corgi we named “Scamp“, who I’ve mentioned a number of times here in the blog. If you are an individual who wants to avoid empty nest syndrome, a dog is the way to do it. He has blessed our lives over so many times and we only wish he could live the same life span as we will (God willing). He’s smart, fun-loving, a bit stubborn (which we both love although we normally wouldn’t admit it), and a joy to have in our lives – every day.
THE BEAUTY OF YOUR BACKYARD
Simple pleasures are what make life worth living.
Grilling on the patio, good friends or family joining you on the deck under the umbrella with low wind and no mosquitoes.
Your grandchild waking you up earlier than usual and when you step to the window, you see a family of deer ambling on the other side of your fence, enjoying the halos and/or apples you tossed there the night before for them to enjoy.
A family of bluebirds attend their nest of babies while other birds serenade you as they go about their own day.
Watching as Scamp slowing and meticulously stalks the squirrel you know (you hope?) he won’t outrun on the tiny animal’s route escape, as soft billowy clouds pass gently above in a perfect blue sky.
Is this heaven? No, It’s an Iowan’s backyard.
MUSIC
Most of you who know my blog can sense my love of music. Not very often does a day go by without a music video showing up at the bottom of the post.
Who needs therapy when you have Spotify or Pandora? I would surely be a different person without the love I have for music and its ability to lift and alter your very being.
“Music is the universal language of mankind.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
In closing today’s post, there are innumerable things I could name that bring me happiness (chief among them my wife who contributes and shares in everything that makes me happy every day I’m alive), but these items I mention today are the things that come to mind based on the prompt as it was written.
I pray you are as fortunate in your life as I have been in mine.
MOTEVENTURE 
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