Accepting Pleasure

You know who's the best at accepting pure pleasure? Animals. A dog will lay on its back for hours and let you scratch its tummy, when you slow down, he'll nudge his cold nose at you so you remember to keep on. A cat will rub itself at your feet, or curl up in your lap and just purr away, at any little stroke. It's almost like they are programmed to sit still and receive pleasure.

So are we! Humans are hard-wired to receive pleasure, but we still don't do it very well. How difficult it is to accept kindness, gentleness, someone doing nice things for us and kind gestures, it's hard to accept things that give us pleasure! And why? People give us gifts and we say, "No;" people offer to do something nice for us, and we hedge and hem and hah (another way to say, "no").

We have lots of fine excuses for it, oh we don't want to be beholden, oh, we don't want to put anyone out, oh, we don't want to be a bother...heck - all of those excuses are more bothersome then letting someone do something nice for you and offer you up some pleasure, that's for sure.

I think we should institute a national Pleasure Day. On this day each year, you have to do kind, gentle and sweet things for others that bring them pleasure AND you have to accept those same things yourself. No, I think we should go further - I think we should be this way EVERYDAY. The kinder you are, the more kindness comes to you. The gentler you are, the more gentleness comes to you. The sweeter you are to people, the sweeter they are to you. When you sow pleasure, you reap pleasure.

For all these things breed themselves, they multiply exponentially - we could start a world-wide revolution, just by learning to accept and give pleasure to each other in the way of politeness, civility, kindness, gentleness, sweetness.

Yes! Let's start a revolution of pleasure.

Blessings.
- Darshan

© 2008 Darshan F Jessop