The Simple Pleasures, "Good Things" (a la Martha Stewart), Tender Mercies, Blessings, and Sound of Music Style Favorite Things of a Camping Trip

My life consists of so many small pleasures, or little things that make life enjoyable.

I even display them on my wall. You might say it's a caboodle

Small and simple pleasures are not a new idea. The movie Amélie displays them. (For those interested, if you want a version that's not less than virtuous, BYU International Cinema and/or ClearPlay are there to help out. At least they helped me. I saw it at BYU International Cinema with Natty B a year or two ago.)

The movie introduces people by listing their simple pleasures. Amélie is wonderful because it displays quirky people and the odd little things about them. It shows their favorite things.

Cue the Von Trap children and Julie Andrews

I want to be like Amélie in some ways, and I already am like her in some other ways. She has lovely vintage, old fashioned and utilitarian clothing, similar to what I aspire to have, except it will be classy because it won't show much skin.

Amélie has hermit tendencies (Moi aussi, Am, moi aussi.) She notices weird things about people. She has these mad rushes of joy where music seems to be playing and she just loves life and wants to do good deeds (she helps a man rediscover his lost childhood and helps a blind man cross the street!) Hers is a caboodle of a life....

She melts when she's embarrassed

I wish I could do that.

I just got back from a camping trip full of what Martha Stewart (and everyone else in the English speaking world) calls "good things."

On my camping trip, I saw adorable cousins

(or first cousins once removed if you want to get technical)

I went stargazing and turned a shooting star green. Did you know you could do this? All you have to have is a green laser

Just don't shine your laser on an airplane or helicopter. No need to explain why, except to say that you just might face jail time.

I saw sheep, lots of them. I baaaahed. They Bahhhed back

My cousin slammed on the truck's horn to shoo them out of the road. I laughed hysterically at this. Twas fun.

I ate dutch oven stews, dutch oven cheesy bacon potato concoction, dutch oven breakfast, and dutch oven peach cobbler

S'mores: lots of them. Some traditional, and some between chocolate cookies.

I sat by a glowing campfire too

On the way there and back the fam and I sang to and blasted music that you listen to when you camp. Criteria: It must talk about nature.

We sang "Rocky Mountain High" louder than primary children in a sacrament meeting program (zing!)

We sang to music from the Sound of Music like we were in that musical

I always do.

We were driving through rocky mountains and rocky Castle Valley plateaus, so it was appropriate

It's probably a good idea to have four wheel drive to come here, but Pete's Hole is amazing.

I smelled. The smells were so familiar and fantastic: Dusty.

There is lots of dust in this place.

Weird, but I love Castle Valley dust

My fam likes to go rock hunting and we found a rock shaped like a tooth

We are very easily amused.

I rediscovered memories from my childhood

(The Pageant!)

There were lots of crazy, little things that could have ruined the trip. They didn't though, that's because we're optimists and we chose to remember the good things.

When I got home, just my house was a simple pleasure.

Then one of these

It was luxurious.

(This is not my shower, but it is very nice, so you catch my drift. Mine doesn't look luxurious enough! Do you think this looks like the shower of a rugged outdoorsman? Maybe the Allspice guy would use this shower...)

Another way to look at it is to think of these things as tender mercies and/or blessings. I choose not say that I'm lucky, but that I'm blessed because of them. I recognize where life's joys come from. I see them and I know: there is something more to them; they don't just happen. They're there to help me to rediscover me: who I really am. They are divine in more ways than one.