Over verandah teatime just now, I asked my neighbour Anna what her MVP of yesterday was. MVP being the 'Most Vivid Pleasure', the stand-out moment of the day. This is Anna who has seven horses, an old bath heated by a fire underneath, and house with very few walls or windows. She got all excited and said that to her amazement, it was yesterday, at the accountants. "It was that moment when he said my business will not always be small. It just made me so happy".
I've been recording my MVP for decades now, on and off, in my little Caspari diaries. 23 of them so far.
My sister, her hubby and their 9-year-olds announce their happy moment of the day at the dinner table each night. 'When I was crossing the street, and was feeling aware how wonderful my husband is'. 'When nobody else knew the answer, and I did'.
The treats and activities that are sold to us as glamorous are only occasionally the Most Vivid Pleasure.
There are so many predators out there, trying to get our attention, our time and resources. They get us to click, to spend.
The simple, quiet act of observing actual joy makes us stronger, less exploitable. It subtley alters how we set up our futures, and the happy accidents we will wander into.
There is a spot in Gardenfarm where you enter an avenue of eucalyptus, on the way to the swimming hole, and walk into a wall of fragrant new air. My MVP Yesterday was just after I stepped into that 'wall' on our way to a swim, knowing my sister was just a few steps behind. The anticipation. Then it envelops her too, and there you go, she is sighing with the surprise and the deliciousness. I get to live with this every day, and treat her to it. That was my MVP of our hot day yesterday.
Find your MVP of today. Tell me how it goes. Noting it in a diary is good, and you can re-enjoy it when you are old. But doing it each evening with your mates each has a momentum, has a joy that can be the MVP itself.
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Bonus Video: My friend Kim Lam made this adorable book of Small Pleasures, and I made a video review, just to savour them more. Kim says "Collecting small pleasures keeps me actively on the lookout for more and effectively increases my daily uptake of joy. They come in all shapes and sizes—from the barely-perceptible, to the all-encompassing."
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