And then suddenly all at once and out of nowhere it hit me.

Life’s greatest pleasure is leisure.

And despite that ceaseless nagging to strive, arrive, and thrive,
that endless craving after the next that or the more-impressive this,
that wanton mischief of a mind left too long untended,
an unmistakably clear ring of the bell rouses me from my somber slumber.

So what of today? How did I avail myself of this undeserved and unexpected gift?

Well, today was slow, today was still.

And I smiled a lot. And I helped someone. And an old man complimented my hair. And the person at the checkout counter gave me the warmest of hellos.

And things went smooth, and things went just fine.

My day was free from striving, from arriving, from thriving, and from craving. I tended to my long untended mind, mitigating its mischief and rousing its slumber.

And nothing actually changed in my life. Today was the same as the last and the same as tomorrow’s most assuredly will be. Yet my attitude shifted, what some might even call the very biggest of changes we human beings will ever experience.

And I was at leisure, and it was the greatest of pleasures.

Not a raise, nor a grand reward. Just a gentle day, paid attention to, appreciated in all its refined intricacies.

And it was grand in its own right.