Simple pleasures

Late October just doesn't tend to be as beautiful in the Pacific Northwest as it can be in other parts of the country.  Even if it's not raining, the clouds have pretty much rolled in for the duration, and as the days grow short and the light starts to go you can feel your internal energy begin to shift as well.

So it can be hard, both at the beginning and the end of the season, to keep my spirits up -- especially since I don't go out with my camera much this time of year.  But there are compensations, one of which is that the higher tides mean the wildlife are floating closer to my windows -- which is how I managed to get a shot of this loon from my living room yesterday morning.

I watched her for quite a while -- she was actually enjoying the rain, splashing about and grooming herself, and was quite entertaining; a real bright spot in the day.  Which leads me to this quote from John Kehoe's book, The Practice of Happiness:

"We need to remind ourselves that many pleasurable moments exist each day in our life. Understanding this, we make a decision to start noticing them.  We take a few seconds here, a moment there, to stop and appreciate the small joys and beauty in our lives.  And far from it being a chore, we find ourselves refreshed by this simple practice."

So.  When you look around you, what small joys are helping to refresh you today?