Did you know that there’s a trick to living life like an epicure, a person who takes particular pleasure in fine food and drink?
And it’s taking pleasure in the simple things.
Such as in the way the sunshine filters through the branches on an afternoon walk, a beautiful song or how you take your morning coffee.
You can swig your morning coffee without a second thought.
Or you can do it properly: investing in quality ingredients, frothing the milk with care, pouring your coffee into a beautiful cup and enjoying it by taking a moment to pause and allowing gratitude to well up in you.
When you take your coffee like a true epicure, it’s not just about drinking coffee.
It’s about being present in the now, enjoying and appreciating the small moments in life.
Don’t confuse this with perfection.
Or staging your imperfect life to look perfect for likes.
The epicure doesn’t construct her enjoyments for other people to see; she constructs them purely for her own joy.
On Saturday morning, she lights candles before ensconcing herself in bed with a latte made with a dark French espresso that has notes of chocolate, toast and caramelised sugar, and watches her three miniature dachshunds swimming in the rumpled linen sheets.
She plays her favourite music.
Maybe some Mozart, maybe Leonard Cohen, maybe Michael Bublé, and just revels in the morning.
She can feel the texture of the sheets under her fingers and hear her dogs snuffing in the bedding, stretching out in pleasure and romping with each other.
She smells the aroma of her coffee, sees the dancing light of the candle flames and listens to the music she so enjoys.
And that moment is so enjoyable that she can’t help but love life.
Maybe later she’ll have a friend or two over, make meatballs with beer and mustard in them, split them in half and serve them with a dab of mayo.
And follow that up with mud cake made from an old family recipe.
Whatever makes your life more enjoyable, makes you love your life more, is what you should do more of.
JOURNALING PROMPTS:
What makes your life more enjoyable?
What do you really enjoy?
Listening to music on full volume during a thunderstorm? Adding some Habanero into your espresso? Going for a long walk in the forest once a week?
Take a moment now and think about what makes you really enjoy life. And what can you do in your daily or weekly, or monthly routine to inject more enjoyment into your life?
