Life's Most Underrated Pleasures

Today, I want to share a list of those itty bitty things in life that are often forgotten when we think of the things that make us happy. Each of these items comes from a thread on Reddit. I've edited some for language and content, but they are still the thoughts of people from who-knows-where in the world.

So, life's most underrated pleasures:

• First gulp of water after walking home on a hot day. There really is nothing like it - but the satisfaction only lasts for about 0.5 seconds...
• Being finished with something you really dread doing. It's a huge weight off your mind and a sense of accomplishment rolled into one.
• That little window of time where you're lying in bed awake just on the precipice where you could fall back asleep for another hour or two if you wanted, and then you realize you can.
• When you're able to genuinely make another person(s) laugh.
• A head massage.
• Peeling the plastic sticker off new electronic devices.  
• Getting a good grade on the final exam of a class you hated and realizing you will never have to deal with that teacher's boring lectures again. 
• The countryside in summer.
• When I get home and my son hears me come in and I see his little smiley face from down the hall, and he goes PaPaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
• Fresh sheets on your bed.  
• When you have had water in your ear all day, and then that nice fuzzy moment when the lukewarm water leaves your ear!
• The absence of high stress.
• Peeling dried glue off your hands.
• Being smiled at.
• A poo in your own bathroom after a weekend away.
• Dipping your hands in a bag of beans.
• Having someone else wash your hair. I don't care what gender you are, if you are massaging my scalp, I love you.
• Smelling a new tennis ball.
• As a female, taking off your bra after a long day. It feels like the hills are alive with the sound of my free chesticles.  
• Opening up your windows after a long, cold winter. When the breeze brings the smell of flowers and freshly mowed grass into your bedroom.
• Getting home from being out on the town, the feeling of finally taking off your high heels. It feels like your heels are sinking into the floor, but it's soooo good.
• Farting after hanging out with people you can't fart in front of. Very very relieving.
• Cleaning out my ears with a Q-Tip.
• The first scissor cut into a fresh piece of construction paper.
• Finding out there was indeed one more chicken nugget when you thought there were none.
• Sneezing!
• Going to sleep with a bad headache, and waking up without one.
• Getting a package in the mail.
• That split second of silence when you go under a bridge while driving in a nasty rain storm. .001 seconds of bliss.
• Blowing your nose after it's been really stopped up and having a nice satisfying glob come out and suddenly, all at once, your nose is totally fine, no longer running, no longer stuffy, and you can breathe again.  
• Seeing the city limits of your hometown after a long drive back home.
• Turning the pillow over to the cool side.
• Sitting around the table after a big meal with yoir closest friends sharing in good stories and laughter. I could do that for hours.
• Being married for 20 years. It's no longer "romantic exciting love" but it's a type of love even more pleasurable. Too many divorces happen because this pleasure is underrated and people think new love is better.
• Your kids sleeping through the night.
• Catching a legendary pokemon with a regular pokeball.
• Playing a streaming video on the internet completely to the end without any <buffering...> pauses, looking straight at you youtube
• The smell of a new book.
• Walking in the door of the house you grew up in, smelling mom's dinner cooking.
• Completely losing the outside world while listening to headphones.
• Removing the sticky stuff that comes on gift cards.
• Bubble wrap. Pop Pop.....Pop...Pop.
• Sitting down after a long stand!
• Sitting down in the shower.
• Driving. People see it as a chore but it really can be wonderfully engaging and mediative. 
  
• Swimming naked.
• Having a fresh-from-the-dryer load of laundry thrown on top of you.
• Hearing that gentle crumbly sound your vacuum makes when it picks something up. (Or alternatively, mowing through really tall grass)
• Going pee after you have been holding it for a long time.
• Waking up feeling rested. It happens so rarely for me, that when it does I feel like I can take anything on that day.
• Taking off cold wet socks and putting on dry new ones
• Biting into a piece of freshly baked bread. mmm. 
• Having the song on the radio finish at the exact instant you pull into your driveway and turn off the car.
• Buying an epic present for someone else and then being like, yeah I know, I know!
• When you have an appointment with someone, but that person cancels on you last minute, giving you the opportunity to sit on the couch all night in your sweatpants. That night you're not alone because you have no social live, you have just received the gift of time.
• That feeling of accomplishment you get after cleaning your home from top to bottom.
• Creating something, then looking upon your creation and saying "I made that, that is mine."
• Being greeted by your dog.  
• Sitting around a campfire. Nothing like it.  
• The moment you see the waiter/waitress approaching on the horizon with your food. Drool.
• Being the first one to step on a freshly fallen snow. Especially when it's a bit frozen and you get that incredible sensation of hearing that crrrrraaaaaccccckkkkkk. Also, kicking dirty snow off my car. I love that.
• Silence.

  
  

  If you read this far, way to go! There were thousands more comments in the original thread. Take a moment and appreciate these small things, and always be on the lookout for the things that bring you joy.