Little Luxuries

At the level of sensation, there is not much difference between big and little luxuries

Wednesday, August 21, 2024

When you think of luxury, what does that word bring to mind for you? It instantly gets me thinking about 2,000 thread count sheets and a mattress that feels like sleeping on a cloud. The time and ease of mind to luxuriate in them. Food that tastes like rapture brought to me by nice people who care about my delight. Awe-inspiring scenery to take in. Finery to wear including alpaca socks that cost $60 a pair. Lovely appointments in my living space like fancy shower heads and trickling water features and ski-high sun-filled atriums. Clean space, no crumminess or chipped paint in sight. Fresh cut flowers everywhere, changed daily before the water gets gross. Things that smell good including fancy potions in the tub. Business class seats. I feel like I could go on forever imagining a life of luxury that seems to have barely anything to do with my own. (Though my mattress actually is kind of like sleeping on a cloud.)
And yet when you zero in on the sensations of these luxuries – the actual felt experience of them – they are not all that exclusive:
  • Soft things against the skin
  • Feeling cared for
  • Being at the center of someone’s undivided attention
  • The open feeling of spaciousness and light
  • Soothing sounds of nature
  • Beautiful things for the eye to see
  • Food made with care and attention to taste, smell, appearance and texture
  • Nerve-soothing sparkling order
  • Time to appreciate and immerse oneself in the experience
It’s strange to think about it but I’ve already had most of those things in my humble little day so far and it’s only 9:19 in the morning. Granted, I had to go outside for my soothing sounds of nature, not having a water feature in my house other than a couple of not very fancy faucets. But what other than luxury would you call eating a piece of ginger orange sourdough toast – toast made by a dear friend and carefully appointed with butter and marmalade by me -- on my porch in the quiet of the morning before anyone else is up, rocking in a watermelon red wicker rocker while watching a tiny hummingbird sip nectar out of the dark purple salvia I’d potted up in a majestic urn planter? What other than luxury is it to feel a lush breeze brush across your face in the early morning hours while eating toast and sipping deep, bull-bodied black coffee?
Naming it
The thing about luxury is it makes you feel special. Lucky. Well taken care of. It signals that all is well which sets our minds at ease. In other words, it has some very beneficial properties to confer because when we feel well cared for and at ease then we can be more open, more loving, more creative, less threatened, less frantic, less stingy with our heart. Little luxuries are good, and they help in important and self-sustaining ways but only if we call it out. Without calling out as luxury the cool water I’m splashing on my face after a steamy walk, I’m just washing my face. But if I realize the sensation of this water on my skin and the few moments I’m taking to restore myself qualify as luxurious sensations, then I can feel the luxury of those few moments and feel well cared for and lucky.
 
Unlike yachts and spa resorts, little luxuries don’t take much. The obstacles aren’t high. You don’t even have to have time to spare. You just have to call it what it is in the moment you are experiencing them and it makes it so.
 
To feeling them,
 
E