The Spice of Life

     The Devil's in the details.

     That's an idiom. Basically means that it's the fine print which screws us over. Which we all already knew. I'm going to talk about something else entirely- the idea that the best parts of life are in the details as well.

     Life always has some activities that take up most of our time. Whether it's schoolwork or regular work or sending Kerbals to the moon(Mun). But those large chunks of our life are rarely the best parts of our life. It can happen, if you really love your job or something, but it doesn't happen often. The bits of life that we remember and cherish are the tiny fragments of experience that we've set aside for ourselves, bits of time away from our ordinary experiences that we've chosen to enjoy.

     Hiking is a prime example of this. It's a relatively short amount of time compared to the rest of the week, but it can brighten that week immeasurably. Same thing with dating. It's a short chunk of time that is disproportionately enjoyable.(Hopefully.) I don't think that's coincidence. I think we set aside time in our lives to enjoy living, just being alive and enjoying what we're doing.

     The example that comes to mind is showering. Either you do it in a rush and think about other things all the while, and the time passes quickly and doesn't affect you much. Or you take your sweet time, sing a little(You guys that do this, we can be friends no matter what. Just saying.) and enjoy the warmth on your skin and the feeling of being clean. It's the same experience, but choosing to make it recreational makes it immensely more enjoyable.

     The way I see it, we scatter these experiences around our lives like spices in a dish, adding color and flavor and personality by doing so. Each time set aside too enjoy adds something to our lives. Granted, we need the basic building blocks. Work and school are important. But if the parts of life that we truly enjoy are just spicing, things we chose to add because we wanted them, then a fundamental problem of humanity -how to be happy- is simple. We become happy by choosing to make time for happiness.

     This almost seems too easy, but it makes sense. If you choose to worry about homework while cooking a meal for yourself, you aren't going to enjoy cooking. If you let yourself enjoy the cooking and then worry about the homework in its own time, the cooking will become enjoyable. Showering becomes fun when we let our worries flow away with the water. Netflix is great when you've forgotten about responsibilities, but the second you remember it ruins everything. I didn't learn the last from personal experience or anything. That'd just be irresponsible. And I am ALWAYS responsible.

     Thinking about it, this is basic knowledge. Don't mix work and pleasure. Take a break from your responsibilities for a while and it'll be easier to think when you get back to them. Take time off for yourself and your burdens will seem lighter.

     It doesn't ever take long to create this kind of experience, either. It can be as simple as choosing to focus on the pleasure of things we're already doing, even. Choosing not to worry when you're out having fun. I hate myself for the cliche, but living in the moment.

     I guess I want the takeaway here to be the realization that we can be happier if we focus more attention on the things in our life that are already enjoyable, and devote more small chunks of time to things we enjoy, spicing our lives until we've got them just right.