Quick: Tell me 3 things that delight you.

These would likely be small, inexpensive habits, happenings or experiences that predictably lift your mood, make you smile, get you to giggle, help you feel alive in the moment.

Sometimes the delight is unexpected, like when a local momma deer recently deposited her baby deer behind our front hedge for safekeeping while she foraged for a few hours. I got a picture of her as she was leaving our yard, isn’t she darling?!

Sometimes delights are predictable patterns you can replicate, such as taking a walk with your significant other after dinner several days a week.

Sometimes the delight is a treat you schedule in for yourself. For me it’s a matcha at my favorite bakery in town on Friday afternoons.

Delights can be seasonal (farmer’s market), annual (that concert at Christmas you always attend), with others (picnic by a river), or solo adventures (waking up early to catch a sunrise hike). They can be quiet (reading a great book), loud (your favorite music blasting), tiny (someone lets you merge in traffic easily), large (planned vacation), personal (wearing your favorite shirt) or experienced in a group (the joy of a great movie ending in a theater).

The important thing is to pay attention to what delights you. What delights others may be awful for you, what delights you might not make sense to someone else. Notice what works for you and then give yourself permission to enjoy the delight in the moment it is happening. Then, set yourself up for more delights in the future: Ask your significant other to make that after dinner walk a habit, get your favorite shirt in 2 colors instead of just one so you can wear it more often, schedule in that tea on Friday.

Notice, enjoy, repeat. I can’t wait to hear what delights you!