Delightful Pleasures and Beautiful Things For May

In her book, Simple Abundance, Sarah Ban Breathnach calls them Joyful Simplicities. One of my friends calls them Puttery Treats. I call them Delightful Pleasures and Beautiful Things. They are things you can do for your heart, or your home. They can be a new routine, an afternoon’s outing, a tiny thing, or a day away.

Slowing down the pace of your day with a bit of puttering allows for productive activity at an easier pace, a pace more suited to discovering where contentment lies.

Delightful pleasures can also be discovering a new hobby, meeting a friend you haven’t seen in a while, doing something for fun, and even doing nothing if that would be delightful for you!

Here is a list to get you going. Choose what appeals to you and skip what doesn’t. Let these ideas spark your creativity and make your own list.

May is the transition from Spring into Summer. I hope you find it to be beautiful and delightful. x

1. Create a May Day bouquet full of scented Spring blooms. Put it where you spend a lot of the day and breathe in the aromas as you go about your daily round.
2. Is there something you love to collect? Is it displayed so you can enjoy the pleasure and beauty it brings you? If not, then this is a good month to pull out those treasures, find a special place for them, and enjoy puttering as you create a display.
3. Buy a lavender plant for your garden. It’s a magnet for bees and butterflies. Dry some of the stems and enjoy the fresh scent indoors as well.
4. Watch a favorite old movie from the 1930s, 40s, or 50s. The peek into past lifestyles is a true delight! Look for the domestic details, the social manners and civilities, and the attention paid to style.
5. Consider starting a Commonplace Book if you don’t already keep one. It’s a combination of scrapbook, diary, memento keeper, and ephemera holder. It’s a visual and written archive of all that you treasure and delight in.
6. May is the month we especially remember the Mothers in our life. Not everyone is a mother. But everyone has a mother. And if you’re fortunate, you have women in your life who have been bonus moms. If they are still with you, celebrate their love and beauty and wisdom. If they are no longer in this world, send a prayer of love and thanks out into the cosmos. Talk to your dear ones in your heart. Wherever they are, they will hear you.
7. The days are longer now. Take yourself out for an early morning walk. The peace, and quiet, and calm of the morning will give your day a steady start.
8. Make a lemon tea cake. Drizzle lemon infused icing over the warm cake. Have a slice with your afternoon tea.
9. Visit your local farmers’ markets. Not only can you find the freshest produce, but you’ll also be supporting local artisans who sell their products as well.
10. Discover a local museum or place of interest in your community. Go explore the exhibits.
11. Have a Spring Cleaning Day. Or if a whole day feels like too much, devote yourself to one room. Give it a good clean from top to bottom, then as you put it back together, infuse beauty into it wherever you can. You can eventually get through your whole house this way.
12. Read or listen to a poem a day. Discover The Writer’s Almanac. Originally a daily radio show that included a poem a day, it’s a celebration of words, and writers, and interesting historical highlights that began more than thirty years ago by Garrison Keillor. It’s now on Substack, where you can subscribe and receive an anniversary edition for each day. A compilation from the archive for that particular day.
13. Make a bird feeder for your garden. Use a vintage tea cup and saucer. An old metal tea kettle hung on its side. There are so many fun and creative possibilities.
14. Take yourself to your favorite vintage shop and meander up and down the aisles. Even if you don’t find anything to take home, you will see all kinds of delightful, whimsical, and unique things.
15. Have your lunch al fresco. Put it all on a pretty tray and take it to the garden, or the porch, or the patio. Enjoy the last of Spring’s temperate weather.
16. Invite a few friends over for afternoon tea. Bake something you love and ask each of them to bring their favorite tea cakes or sandwiches. Sharing stories and swapping recipes over afternoon tea could become a seasonal ritual.
17. Have a creative planning session and organize some day trips for the coming summer. One or two each month will give you something to look forward to that’s all about having fun, being playful, and making memories.
18. Are there children in your life? Take them kite flying.
19. Consider writing your memoirs. Unlike an autobiography, a memoir is an episodic narrative. Choose a theme. Choose a year. Let it be just for you. Your private excavation into the forgotten territory of your former selves.
20. Create a dream collage for the second half of the year. What do you want to experience? How do you want to feel? What do you want to accomplish?
21. Spend the afternoon at the bookstore. Used or new, browse all the sections. Linger in your favorite aisles. Treat yourself to a new book or two or three. There’s nothing like the thrill of opening the cover of a new book and reading the first page. Who knows where you’ll go or who you’ll meet?
22. Press flowers in a book. Put them between sheets of waxed paper, then slide into a book. Place another heavy book or two on top for added weight. When they’re ready, you can trim away the extra paper. Use it as a bookmark, or slide it into your commonplace book.
23. Consider creating a gallery wall. If you have more wall than you have art, that can be even better. Now you will be on the lookout for possibilities to add to what you’ve started. Experience the pleasure of discovery, and surprise, as it comes together organically over time.
24. Deliver flowers or something you’ve baked to a neighbor. Allow yourself to linger and listen.
25. Spend an afternoon at the park. Take a book to read, or a notebook to write or draw in. Remember to pack a snack and a flask of something cool to drink. Enjoy the people watching too!

This is where life is lived. In these everyday ordinary moments. In gestures of kindness, to ourselves and to others. In slowing down enough to see what’s going by us as we walk through the world instead of charging ahead at such a speed that it all ends up being a blur. There is magic and beauty all around you. I hope you will find delight, and pleasure, and all kinds of beauty in the days ahead. x

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