Monday, November 15, 2010

Learn to Enjoy Life‘s Simple Pleasures

John and I just returned from a trip to the Amalfi Coast where we spent 8 days traveling through the towns of Positano, Amalfi, Ravello, Sorrento and Naples. Our “home base” there was the small fishing village of Minori.

What a great time we had … so what does this have to do with the title of the blog entry “learn to enjoy life‘s simpler pleasures”!?!

Actually, traveling through this beautiful area caused us to slow down and really appreciate the many things along the way.

Some of our simple pleasures involved food. How wonderful to be able to slowly eat a slice of pizza and taste the fresh cheese and herbs or a fresh salad made with just picked lettuce and vegetables and marinated perfectly with a nice blend of olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Some of our simple pleasures involved the water. We were able to sit at a seaside café for a couple of hours and watch the waves splash against the rocks. Some days they were smooth and playful, other days, affected by a weather front, they were so vigorous that they hit the rocks with splashes 30 feet high.

Some of our simple pleasures involved sound. We were fortunate enough to be in Minori, Italy for the Feast Day of their patron saint and found a traveling concert band marching right in front of our hotel. We attended Mass at the cathedral the next day and were mesmerized by the voices of the combined choirs of the area churches bouncing around this marvelous church over 500 years old. We had nowhere else to be and could just sit and enjoy the wonderful sounds.

Some of our simple pleasures involved watching the people. We would stroll down the boardwalk at night and watch the citizens spending time together playing ball, leaning against the fishing boats and talking or sitting on a bench enjoying gelato.

We rode the buses for destinations between towns … or just because we wanted to ride and see some of the sites. How wonderful to listen to the Italian voices as they hurried home during their lunch break or at the beginning or end of their work day.

What simple pleasures have you noticed lately? We would love to read about your experiences.

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