There are a lot of things going on in the world right now that make me unhappy. To combat those problems, I’ve started volunteering and donating more, but that doesn’t do a lot to combat depression. However, I do find great joy in some peculiar little things, and I thought I’d start sharing them with you.
Hanging Wet Laundry Outside to Dry
I enjoy this on so many levels:
Pro-Environment! I’m using solar and wind power to dry my clothes. It is free. It is healthy. It is good for the planet.
Fresh Scent! I love how clothes smell when they have dried outside.
Stain Remover! Sunlight is an environmentally-friendly, chemical-free stain remover, mostly for food-based stains like tomato. (My mom told me this, so it must be true.)
Kills Germs! Sunlight kills germs. (I read this on the internet, so probably not true.)
Offend Conservative Neighbors! I don’t know for sure that my neighbors hate seeing laundry hanging in the open one yard over, but I suspect they cringe whenever they see me walk outside with my laundry basket and clothespins. Because drying clothes outside is free, only poor people and tree-hugging liberals do it in America. I imagine my neighbors find me a blight on the community. When we bought the house, they told me they were grateful a white family had bought it, as they’d seen some not white people looking at the house. Ha! Take that racist *expletive* neighbors!
Oops. I left my happy place, thinking about my neighbors.
Coffee. Coffee also makes me happy. Look for a blog post in the next bit about coffee. Do you have peculiar little things that make you happy? I’d love to hear about them in the comments below.
Elizabeth Caulfield Felt 
It makes me happy to know that there are others out there who care about the things you and I care about. And while it’s hard and oh so frustrating to know that there are people out there who harbor ill will toward those who do not look, live, act, or speak like themselves, I am happy that there are more of us than there are of them. Peace and love, Elizabeth.
Peace and love, Billie!
I also hang my washing outside to dry, which is a sort of game of will-it, won’t-it rain over here. But the wind softens the fibres, the sunlight disinfects [my mother said so], and the smell of clothes dried outside is worth any perfume. We have our own gardens, why should our neighbours have any say over such a wholesome domestic activity?
Question: what do your neitghbours do in their garden?
Beth Elliott [this is my WordPress account. You and I have chatted on my Blogger account a while back.]
Hi Beth, my neighbors don’t do anything in their back yard. They never go outside. Good to hear your mother also thinks sunshine is a disinfectant. It must be true! Turkish coffee and raspberries, yum.
Oh, and simple pleasures – a cup of Turkish coffee; raspberries in a crystal dish and a silver spoon to eat them with; a good novel to enjoy.
This post, and the subsequent part two, gives me joy. Simple pleasures are the best, especially when they are also a quiet act of rebellion. All the love with all the quiet strength.