““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

Last week, I was invited by my spiritual director to attend a half-day workshop that taught participants how to write a rule of life. My church has a rule of life and I'm familiar-ish with what it entails, but it wasn't until I took a time of quiet introspection that I actually was able to name the tenants of what I hold most dear in my life—rest and play, delight and honor, community and solitude. And while each of these categories hold many practical applications, it was the category of delight that captured my imagination.

Maybe it's because I read The Book of Delights by Ross Gay last year and then attended an author event he spoke at for Charlottesville's Festival of the Book. Or maybe it's because my work at The Allender Center touches often on delight within the family of origin, asking who delighted in you, and where did you go to find delight?

In either case, delight is not a matter to be taken as casually as happiness or momentary thrill, but, as Ross Gay writes, “the more you study delight, the more delight there is to study.”

As most things, it is in the noticing that we find the answers we seek.

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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.

What would it look like to find delight each day? How might that change the way I view the world and my life?

How is delight different from enjoyment, happiness or momentary thrill?

If I believe these words to be true, how then will I live today?