Simple Pleasures

A Recovering Night Owl

/ James Browning / 1 Comment

There is not a long history of me being a morning person.  The majority of my adult life I characterized myself as more of a night owl who was usually up until 11pm if not midnight (weekends much later).  My wake up time barely allowed me a stretch long enough to get up and get out of the house and to work each day.  I was notoriously late!!  There was a frantic beginning to every one of those days.  It was my strong belief then that those who called themselves a “morning person” were some sort of genetic mutant.  If that is what it takes, now I am very grateful for the personal mutation that allowed the discovery of mornings! 

 In place of jumping out of bed and immediately trotting through the maze of make coffee, shower, dress, eat and drive like a maniac to work; now my mornings have a calmer and less abrupt beginning.  A couple of years ago it hit me that I gave the best hours of my day to the outside world.  I kept for myself the hours at the end of the day when I was the most tired and fatigued.  I was giving away “me” at my most rested and mentally sharp and keeping the leftovers for myself at the end of the day.

In earlier days I really needed to be at work between 8:30 and 9am, but that often stretched to 9:15am or later.  Being the senior person in my jobs for over 20 years there was no one to tell me I was “late”.  I worked hard, but often ended up laboring a bit later than those who got their day rolling earlier than I did.  Over a period of about two years I slowly adapted my rising time in the morning by 15 minute increments until my previous rising time of 7:30 or 7:45am became 6 or 6:15am.  Most recently I am adapting to the alarm going off at 5:45am.

 Am I crazy?  Probably a little, but I find I feel quite different at the start of each day.  The luxury of time in the morning is one of the factors in being able to come here and write each day.  I also read, check email, get up to date with news on-line, read whatever book has my interest at the moment and stay in better touch with those I care about. Previously at the end of the day after dealing with work emails all day long, one of the last things I wanted to do was come home and write more.  Now at the start of the day my mind is fresh when I actually have the time and inclination to write emails that consist of more than “hope you’re good.  Have a nice day.” 

 I know now that I never really was a night owl.  Rather I was just in the habit of being one.  It was challenging to adapt my sleeping habits to get up earlier.  Over time though it became my new habit and I can now say I am a morning person!  If happiness is living in the moment, I was missing a good bit of the joy of living.  My thinking in the later rising and hectic day beginning starts was thoughts like:  Got to run.  I’m late.  Am I going to be on time?  Slow drivers, get out of my way.  I did not eat this morning.  I don’t have time to stop for gas; hope I don’t run out.  And so on….  I was often in such a hurry I’d forget things like my coat, my phone, my wallet and even putting on a belt.  I even wore non-matching shoes to work one day!  What a relief my new schedule is.  It’s a wonderful gift I have given myself.  Bedtime does come earlier now, but sleep seems to come quicker and I seem to rest better.  My counter for the jokes from friends about getting old and going to bed just after sundown (my actual bed time is 10pm) is simply to tell them they don’t know what they are missing.

Early to bed.  Early to rise.  Makes a person healthy, weatlhy and wise.  Ben Franklin

Thank You for the Music

/ James Browning / 3 Comments

Last evening I was fortunate to be a friend’s guest at an impressive Foo Fighters concert at our local arena.  All bands touring could take lessons from the passion and professionalism Dave Grohl and his band exhibit.  They played for over two and a half hours and I am grateful to have witnessed the show.

As I watched the performance, among the chill bumps of hearing songs performed live I know so well and singing along, a wave of gratitude hit me for all the great concerts I have been blessed to set eyes on.  There have been so many it is difficult to remember them all.

When I was barely a teen I sang along with Paul Revere and the Raiders at my first concert “I’m hungry for those good things, baby” as my way of asserting I was someday going to have a life outside of the rural south where I was growing up.

Within two years I had let my hair grow longer (pretty conservative by today’s standards) and was wearing sandals and army shirts.  I became what my brother later told me some people called the first hippie in Clay County, Alabama.  That’s interesting since I did not even know what marijuana was for another 4 years.  However, I was dressed the part and ready to see bearded, long-haired Felix Cavalieri of the Rascals sing “love to see the music take you away” and they took me away with a 10 minute jam (the first one I ever witnessed).

I held hands with my first serious girlfriend on the Auburn University campus while The Classics IV sang what became the epitaph of that relationship “Tickets torn in half, memories in bits and pieces”. 

In Jackson I sang along with Mountain “Mississippi Queen, if you know what I mean, she taught me everything”.  With me at the concert was the girl/woman who was my “first” and I hers.  She did not teach me everything, but we learned a lot together.

In the 70′s I moved to Colorado and with America in concert I sang “I’ve been through the desert on a horse with no name”.  Later in Omaha I immensely enjoyed singing along with poet/performer Gordon Lightfoot, “If you could read my mind, love, what a tale my thoughts could tell”.

 “There’s a lady who’s sure all that glitters is gold” I sang with Led Zeppelin live at Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati.  And a year later on December 3, 1979 in that same arena I sang “We’ll be fighting in the streets with our children at our feet” not knowing after that Who concert I’d find out 11 people had been trampled to death on their way into the show.

Over the years I have sung  “ On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair” with the Eagles in concert, “Just let me know if you wanna go to that home out on the range” with ZZ Top, “The rain exploded with a mighty crash as we fell into the sun” with Paul McCartney, “A goodbye kiss is all I need from you” with George Strait, “There must be higher love” with Steve Winwood, “She shines with her own kind of light” with Neil Diamond, “I wanna be loved like that” with Shenandoah, “Where are you going for tomorrow” with Stone Temple Pilots and all the others I sang along with:  Bruce Springsteen, Union Gap, Santana, Sammy Hagar, Rolling Stones, Boyce and Hart, Alanis Morisette, John Conley, Kansas, Billy Joel, Kiss, Queen, Three Dog Night, Jeff Beck, Ronnie Milsap, Rush, Marvin Gaye, Jackson Browne, Fleetwood Mac, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Tracy Lawrence, NIN, Roots, Moody Blues, Staind, Police, Johnny Lang, Carpenters, Bush, Eric Clapton, U2, David Bowie, Alabama, Joe Cocker, Crosby Stills and Nash, Moby, AC/DC (several times!), Styx, Beach Boys, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Yes,  Elton John, Outcast, James Taylor, Nelly Furtado, Incubus, Nickelback, Kinks, Reba McEntire, Black Eyed Peas, Aerosmith (gave some of hearing to those guys sitting in the 6th row!), 311, Beck, Genesis, Sublime, Def Leppard and so many more.

Knowing that I have listed not even half of the artists I have seen in concert, I am overcome with a sense of profound humility and almost over powering gratitude.  Was it because I love music so much that I attended all these shows or was it all the great live music that gave me a deep love of music?  I think it was probably both. 

Although I admit to not being a big fan of Abba, one of their songs expresses clearly my feelings of gratitude this morning:  “Thank you for the music, the songs I’m singing
Thanks for all the joy they’re bringing”.  ‘Nuff said.

Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.  Victor Hugo

This is Wonderful!

/ James Browning

The company that employs me takes good care of me and the hotels they book are very good ones, which I am thankful for.  However, a hotel room is just that:  a temporary place to hang clothes, bathe and sleep.  Some of the best hotels I have slept in have been paid for by an employer but I don’t sleep enough or particularly well in unfamiliar beds.  While on a business trip I am usually treated to great food in fine restaurants for which I am grateful, I always take in too many calories.  I am often entertained in ways that are uncommon to me to get to do which I also accept gratefully. However, all in all I generally come home tired from a business trip, a little out of sorts and in general worn out.

Whatever magic for me there was in business travel when younger has long since largely disappeared.  After 10 hours in airports yesterday, my arrival home was no different than usual.  However, when reviewing it all I know I am blessed with a good job and a good employer.  I am lucky to get to travel and have the experiences I get to have.  Even getting to fly as much as I do helps rack up frequent flyers miles for personal vacation travel.  All in all, I am reminded I have much to be grateful for.

After arriving at my home airport and getting my car I drove to the office and spent a few hours there.  It was good to see my coworkers.  I am truly blessed to share my working life with a group of talented people I respect and genuinely enjoy being around.   No emergencies or fires to put out, so I came home and unpacked soon after I arrived.  If unpacking is not made a completed task soon after I return home, I have this tendency to put it off for a day or two and end up having to rummage through my bag trying to find things.  For dinner I grabbed a bowl of cereal as I was just too pooped to do anything else.  Mindlessly I sat in front of the TV (correction:  lay in front of the TV for about two hours decompressing from my travels).  Between 8:30 and 9pm, my eyes were having difficulty staying open and toward bed I headed.

King size beds take up too much of a bedroom for my taste and my “queen size” is plenty big for me and accommodates my six foot three inch height.  When first purchased the high bed I have took some time to get used to.  It sits about 3 feet from the floor and originally I thought falling out of bed would be a regular occurrence.  That never happened and now I do enjoy not having to bend and crawl in and out of a low bed.  My high bed is easy for me to roll into and out of.

After brushing my teeth and not flossing (sorry Dr. C.) to bed I went.  I was very tired, but so glad to be home.  As I crawled into bed and felt the cool sheets against my skin along with the texture of the bed my body is so accustomed to, I smiled a satisfied smile and with great gratitude said aloud “this is wonderful”.  And after that simple expression of gratitude for one of life’s great simple pleasures within a minute I was fast asleep.

Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.   Author Unknown

Playing It Backwards

/ James Browning

Through the years I have become much more conscious of eating food that is good for me.  Not that I was ever awful at it, but my habits needed some adjustments to be more healthful.  A couple of years ago I developed a taste for strawberries, melon, blueberries, grapes and fruit for breakfast.  Now most every morning I have a bowl of some combination of them.  I have always kept bananas around as they are my favorite fruit and today I could easily be writing about them.  However, it’s strawberries from my fridge pictured above that have my attention so I can express my gratitude for them.  Not just for the strawberries, but the amazing fact that I can get them year round.  Of course, they are sold at a better price in-season but the fact that in the middle of winter I can buy them blows my mind!

When I step back and begin to express gratitude for the ability to get strawberries every day, it is the people who make it happen that deserve my thanks.  I did a little homework on how they are grown commercially today and my list of people to thank got pretty long.

  • The person who plowed the field and made the mounds to plant on
  • Those who installed the drip irrigation system in the mounds
  • The one at a nursery who took the cutting for a new plant
  • The packer that got the new plant ready to be shipped. 
  • The man or woman who drove the truck that carried the new plants to the farm
  • The person who planted the new plant
  • The one who fertilized the strawberry plants
  • The people who covered the plants with plastic so they stay moist and the one who punched the holes for the plants to “breathe”
  • The human hands that “weeded” the plants and cut off runners
  • The person who picked the strawberries and packed them.
  • The drivers responsible for the berries getting from the field to a wholesaler then to a grocery store
  • The produce stocker who put them out in the store so I could buy them
  • The checkout person who I paid for the strawberries

And I won’t even get into all the people responsible for making the car that I drove the strawberries home in or the refrigerator that keeps them fresh.

You may be thinking that this is a pretty stupid thing to be writing about and expressing gratitude for.  But I disagree.  By my count it took at least 15 people that were directly involved so I can have my strawberries for breakfast.  Yet, I know I have only scratched the surface.  The actual tally is probably several times that.

This sort of thinking has me recently pondering everything from the shirt I put on to the pine board I purchased to make a home repair.  I wonder how many people’s work it took for me to be able to have a product.  Many people return a good deed by “playing it forward” and that is a wonderful practice. I have a new practice that is similar.  I stop here and there and “play it backwards” and think about all those responsible for all the things I am able to have.  I feel that expressing a little silent gratitude in “backwards” fashion sends goodness to them.  But to a much greater degree those thoughts enrich me by just thinking them and through that gratitude I feel more connected to the great circle of humanity.

We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude.  Cynthia Ozick

Seeing the Bluest Blue

/ James Browning

No matter how many times I have tried to photograph a blue sky, I have never been able to capture the same image my eyes see.  Yesterday was an exceptionally beautiful day and offered one of those bluest blue days I have seen.  Rain and a cold front moved through in the two days previous which scrubbed the air to look crystal clean.  There were little whiffs of clouds scattered here and there in the sky, but nothing that was organized.  What I saw touched me.

In years now past I can remember looking at paintings in books, magazines and museums and thinking the artist did not portray the sky accurately.  He or she overstated the color and made it a much brighter color than reality ever shows.  I had that opinion of sunrises, sunsets and especially the blue of a clear sky.  There is something about the first half of life that causes many of us to sleep walk through our surroundings.  I suppose it is because we are so inward focused in those years that it prevents us from really seeing and noticing things as they truly are.  That was certainly the case with me.  The sky was always just there with its presence acknowledged by me but never really seen.

My recovery from a painful divorce a few years ago and working past my own stuff that was largely the cause brought me to a new way of being.  One of the activities that helped bring about the change in me is to at least once per day profoundly notice something and really see it.  At first it was a hit and miss endeavor, but after a couple of weeks it began to settle in as a new habit.  It was then that I was able to stop and look pointedly for a short while at a flower and see how wondrous it was  in color, texture and form.  I also began to really see people and was struck by how serious and unhappy most people appeared seemingly all wrapped up “inside them self”.  The exception is most young children who have an unbridled zest for life.  Even when pitching a fit they put themselves completely into the moment.  Now I can’t help but smile whenever I see a 2, 3 or 4 year old’s  marveling over something.

Early on in my awakening I discovered the marvel of a blue sky.  When I really stopped to “see” it, my amazing discovery was it was so blue it did not look real.  The first time I was stunned by a blue sky I realized if I was able to capture the sky as I saw it, most would think I doctored it in Photoshop.  Iwas a member of that “most” group most of my life.  Life is so much more interesting, amazing and touching when outward awareness is open, awake and alert.   

I challenge you to try my little habit that changed my perspective so soundly.  At least once each day look up from where you are and what you are doing and really see something.  Look for beauty, color and life in ordinary things rarely noticed.  Study what you see for 30 seconds or so and take memory snapshots of what you are looking at.   I’ll bet you will find what I did:  there are amazing things all around us all the time to be dazzled by and to be grateful for.  Really seeing  helps balance the difficulty and challenge of life and makes living taste so much sweeter.  If you don’t know how to get started just go watch some little kids playing or look up and really see a blue sky the next time you come upon one.   Once your eyes open wide enough to truly “see” you will never be the same again.

I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.  G.K. Chesterton

Loving the Rain

/ James Browning

The ivy on my patio has been loving the rain of the last couple of weeks.  So have I!  For me there is no greater pleasure than a rainy day with a window open so I can hear the rain, then sitting down close by with a good book and spending the hours richly soaking up the minutes.  I absorb more from what is printed on each page and the mental images the writer’s words put in my mind are more vivid and alive than when reading on a sunny day.

I really do love the rain and the misty, overcast days when the hours are drizzled away.  I feel safer on such days as even the robbers and burglars are not as likely to be active on a day when it is raining.  There is such comfort for me from the constant drizzle and ocassional thunder. I feel closer to life, softer inside and memories flow easier for me with a sweeter taste on such a day.

I believe my thoughts and feelings are rooted in my childhood and being on my grandparent’s front porch in the rural south on damp, wet days.  When a couch became too worn for the inside, it became a fixture on the front porch until the outside exposure did it in.  Usually about the time a new couch appeared inside and another old one was ready for the porch.  There on the couch and and under a quilt or two I borrowed from inside the house I sat, watched, sometimes read and often took a nap.  The porch was one of these BIG Southern front porches long and wide enough that the rain rarely reached anywhere near me on the couch.  Watching a good thunderstorm from that vantage point was extra special!  I always felt safe.  I never thought much about the fact that sometimes the dogs slept on the couch too.  I don’t remember ever getting fleas!

My top of mind gratitude this Sunday morning is for the rain… the beautiful showery drizzle that I enjoy beyond my ability to express it.  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s loving description of the rain is far better than any I could ever write:

How beautiful is the rain!
After the dust and heat,
In the broad and fiery street,
In the narrow lane,
How beautiful is the rain!
How it clatters along the roofs
Like the tramp of hoofs!
How it gushes and struggles out
From the throat of the overflowing spout!
Across the window-pane
It pours and pours;
And swift and wide,
With a muddy tide,
Like a river down the gutter roars
The rain, the welcome rain!

There are only two ways to live your life.
One is as though nothing is a miracle.
The other is as if everything is.

Albert Einstein

First Cup of Coffee

/ James Browning

This blog is already having a profoundly positive effect on me after just a couple of days.  When I now wake up in the morning one of my first thoughts is about what I am grateful for that I will write about today.  What occurred to me this morning  to express came as I was making the morning brew.  It is my gratitude for my coffee each morning and to those who make it possible.  That simple thought started a landslide of being grateful. 

I am grateful for:  the person who planted the coffee, the one who gathered it, the one who roasted it, the one who packed it, the crew of the ship the brought it to this country, those who unloaded it, those who put it in the can, the store that sold it to me, the trucker who got it to the store, the stocker that put it on the shelf for me to buy, the checkout clerk who I paid for it, even the shopping cart wrangler who was responsible for there being a cart by the store entrance for me grab as I entered the store.    

I am grateful for:  the coffee pot that made this morning’s coffee and all those involved in making it and getting it to me down to those involved in making the raw materials for available, for the people making the packaging down to the one show wrote the instructions.

I am grateful for my then grammar school son who gave me the cup for father’s day close to 20 years ago (and  for his mother who I am confident either bought it for him or paid for it after my son chose it – thank you B.).  I am thankful too for those who made the cup and the ones who brought it close by so it could be purchased for me.  Too, I am thankful for the work where the money was earned that made the purchase possible.

I am grateful for:  the spoon I stirred the coffee with and the many people involved in producing it and the sugar and milk I put into my coffee right down to the cow that made the milk.

I am grateful for:  my Iranian friend Cy who gave me the beautiful tile that I use as a “coffee pouring staton” which has sat by my coffee pot for many years now that.  Seeing it frequently brings him to mind when I am pouring a cup of coffee.

I am grateful for:  the many people who are responsible for me having electricity that made the coffee pot work and made the lights come on so I could see what I was doing (was still dark out when I made coffee).

I am very grateful………. 

This list could still go on and on as I think deeper about such a simple thing as a cup of coffee.  I am deeply touched this morning by the discovery that  increased gratitude unlocks even greater feelings of being grateful. 

Nothing is more honorable than a grateful heart.  Seneca

Favorite Shower of a Lifetime

/ James Browning

 

The photo doesn’t look much like a place a person would take a shower, but in September 2004 I showered with joy right there in the open where the photo shows.  At that time I was living on Grand Cayman and it was 10 days after Hurricane Ivan (a category 5 storm) that ripped the island up badly.  The apartments on the first floor where I lived were gutted by the sea surge that had the 1st floor completely underwater during the storm. 

I am grateful that our apartment was on the 2nd floor and got only a few inches of water on the floor and a broken window.  At least I had a place to call home.  Many on the island did not have a place to sleep and one who did not have a place to stay lived with me for over two months. 

It had been 10 days since the storm and water was very precious.  All we had was bottled water and filthy water left in the pool usedful only for pouring in and flushing the toilet.   There was no piped in water, no electricity and food/water was not easy to come by.  To set the stage you have to understand that I had not bathed in a week and a half since the storm and had only washed off with a rag here and there with the little water I could spare. 

On that 10th day it rained and I did two things:  1) caught as much rainwater as I had containers for to use for washing later and 2) with my swimsuit on and a bar of soap I took a shower under the downspout the arrow points to in the photo.  I have never been more happy or grateful for a shower or bath than I was that day.  NEVER!  I was joyous standing under the down spout, washing, singing and laughing like an uninhibited kid doing a happy dance.  That will always be the favorite and most memorable shower of my life.  To this day I feel the great gratitude deep within.

He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.  Epictetus

Hello World!

/ James Browning / 1 Comment

Here it is… the first post to this new blog.  It is my intention to add something to this page first thing each morning (well at least the first couple of hours of each day).  Each morning I make note of at least one thing I am grateful for (I know there are many, but will pick one thing to share my thoughts about).  Today I am grateful for the rain that has been falling here since Friday.  We were in a drought here in North Eastern Oklahoma so there is much gratitude.  We have gotten so much rain there are flood warnings now.  Today I am grateful for the rain and showers I got to enjoy this weekend… sleeping, reading and just being aware of a simple pleasure like the rain.  Have a groovy day.

To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven.   Johannes A. Gaertner