Chasing Delight

As I listened to a podcast on my morning commute, the word delight caught my attention and lodged itself in my brain. I’m willing to bet the term delight is not used often these days…but maybe it needs a renaissance.

Delight by definition, is simply, to take great pleasure in. When I think about what brings me delight, I find it is the little things in life that are intentionally pursued. If you aren’t paying attention, you’ll miss the experience. Delight is also transient, again highlighting the fact that you need to live in the present to feel it.

When I was drinking, delight was not an option for me. The anesthetized state I existed in did not allow me to feel anything deeply, except maybe pain and regret. In sobriety, with a clear head and an open heart, delight is available whenever I choose to pursue it.

So I decided that, in spite of the world and its current chaos and turmoil, I will try to bring more delight to my life. Or to cultivate a consciousness of the delight that exists around me, that I too often ignore.

Delight is listening to my canary perform an aria on his “singing perch” on a sunny morning. Delight is a black and white macaron from the bakery after my weekly shopping trip. Delight is a hot lavender bubble bath after a long day teaching. Delight is a soft sherbet sunset to signal the weekend. Delight is all around…we just need to turn on our senses and turn off our screens.

I have a book called The Book of Delights by Ross Gay that I plan to read again. Ross Gay is the author of four books of poetry and a professor at Indiana University. He is also the editor of an online sports magazine and a founding board member of the Bloomington Community Orchard, a non-profit, free-fruit-for-all food justice and joy project. He’s just an all-around amazing guy. But perhaps the thing I like best about him is that he has become a self-taught expert in delight.

“It didn’t take me long to learn that the discipline or practice of writing these essays occasioned a kind of delight radar. Or maybe it was more like the development of a delight muscle. Something that implies that the more you study delight, the more delight there is to study.”

Ross Gay, The Book of Delights

It’s like tuning into a certain wavelength, or frequency. The more you hunt for sights, sounds, and tastes that delight you, the more you will encounter them. Discovering delight requires you to exist in a sensory state that most of us are too busy, or too closed off to try and find.

In his essay, “Hummingbird,” Gay writes: “Once I saw a hummingbird perusing the red impatiens outside my building at school, and I walked slowly over to the planting, plucked one, and held it in my outstretched hand perfectly still…until the blur of light did in fact dip its face into the meager sweet in my hand.” In his actions and experiences, he shows that he chooses to look for, and pursue opportunities to engage in these sensory experiences.

The decision to pursue and hunt for delight in your day requires a slower pace of life, which many of us have now anyway, because of the pandemic. You have to be an observer and participant. It is also requires you to acknowledge the fact that delight doesn’t just happen, especially in seasons such as this, but you must choose it for it to exist.

I hope you give the idea of delight some thought, and choose to pursue it in your own life. What better time than now?

What brings you delight?