I’m not claiming that I actually did begin to enjoy them in a consistent way.  Old mindsets die hard.  By the time I eased my car into the garage and stashed my cowboy boots in the back of my closet, I could already hear the creak of rusty hinges as my internal doorway to freedom began to close.  But it never again closed all the way.   Cutting through the darkness of old patterns, old fears, and old guilt was a narrow shaft of light, a thin slice of hope. 

In time, with the help of loving guides, I was able to fling open that door again—as wide as the Montana sky—and life came rushing in.  I read great literature and wept, literally, because it was great and I got to read it.  I started playing Bach sonatas on my flute.  I took an oil painting class and began loitering in art galleries.  I learned to throw pots on a potter’s wheel.  I walked on the beach.  I went fly-fishing.  I kayaked along the Lake Michigan coastline. I bought roller blades and “danced” on country roads.  I went out for cappuccino with my friends.  Or without friends, if I felt like it, and quit apologizing for my love of lonely hours. 

I didn’t do all these things at once; I’m condensing a decade of frivolous pursuits into one paragraph.  But the freedom to embrace the playful, the joyful, the beautiful—which my adult self tasted first on a road trip to the West—was like being creatively and emotionally reborn.

And what absolutely stunned me was that every time I enjoyed a simple pleasure I sensed that God was enjoying my enjoyment.  God wanted me to have light-hearted moments when I could be refreshed and feel fully alive. 

Do you know what refreshes you?  Do you know what simple pleasures would feel like a gift straight from God if you indulged in them?  Do you believe that God wants to breathe life and joyfulness into you through the things you love to do? 

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