Pleasure

Pleasure is often seen as selfish, but I think the greatest pleasure of all is sharing.

This was said by a man on a television program I happened to see the end of and it really struck me.  I wish I knew who it was or what the program was called, so I could at least give credit.

It seems like just one of those cheesy things you'd say, the cliches that girls in high school have plastered all over their lockers and doodle in their notebooks...except perhaps in slightly more mature terms.  But when you really think about it, I think it makes a lot of sense.

Maybe if we spent less time worrying about ourselves and what everybody thinks of us and what we'll never be happy without, and started worrying about making the people around us happy, we'd be happier ourselves.  After all, happiness is contagious.  It's the sort of thing you hear about everywhere.  If you care about someone, do your best to make them as happy, and they'll undoubtedly do the same.

I think somewhere in there I lost track of this.  I'm guessing we all lose track from time to time, and get caught up in our own problems.  But hearing this made me really think about it for a minute.  So even though it's almost a week into the new year now, and resolutions have for the most part already been made (and likely broken), and I don't like resolutions very much, I think I might make one now.

This year, I want to stop worrying so much about myself and start appreciating the people around me.  I want to show them my appreciation and do my best to make them as happy as they make me.  I know it's vague and I hate vague resolutions, but it's so important.  It's the sort of thing that a few years ago I would have written on a post-it note and stuck above my desk just to be reminded (now that I think of it, that may not be such a bad idea after all).

I've been unsure of where I am in my life for the past couple of months.  I've been insecure about the people in it and the direction of it.  And I think that somewhere in all of that insecurity and worrying, I forgot that these people make me very happy.  And that they deserve to be made happy too.  And if I'm going to spend all of my time nervous and miserable, who's going to make them happy?

I'm still not sure where my life is headed or exactly which roles all of the people in it play, that's not something that gets sorted out...possibly ever, not to mention in a five-minute burst of inspiration over something someone said.  But I've realized that I need to show them more appreciation.  I'll be okay so long as I make sure that they're okay.  I need to learn to trust people a little bit and let them in sometimes.

This is a good note to end the day on.  I'm really glad I saw that.  I hope I'm not the only one who takes those words to heart.