Chasing Meteors – Appreciating Simple Pleasures and Memory Making!

We have all heard that old saying, “sometimes the best things in life are free.” Well I like to change it to, “sometimes the best memories in life are free.” We are constantly bombarded daily by consumerism and advertising. We are told that we need to buy this to be happy, or look like this to be sexy, or have this car to be respected. But do we really need any of those things to be happy. If you look back on your most treasured memories and most happy times, where those times and memories based off an item or an amazing moment. I know most of the memories that jump straight to my mind are all about spending time with the people I love or accomplishing something I worked hard for. Sure, the joy of getting that nice car might give you a momentary high but are you prouder of the fact you worked really hard to get that item or is it because society has told you that getting that item makes you special or powerful or interesting. Are you looking forward to showing it off or making memories in it? For some, this car might be something that brings them joy, it might be something they have wanted since they were a child, and not as a status symbol, but because they love cars. Unfortunately, for most, the idea of showing it off is what drives them.

I was reminded of this idea that most of the time it is the simplest pleasures that bring us the most joy and make the best memories this weekend. My friend and I were determined to see the presidio meteor shower this weekend. We used to be roomies and go on adventures like this all the time when we were younger but had not done something like this in a while. So, we got together on Saturday evening, had dinner and spent the rest of the evening chatting away. Around 8ish, we decided we should probably figure out how we wanted to go about hunting meteors. We decided that we wanted to see them at their peak, so we ended up going to bed and then waking up at 2am to head out to hopefully see a lot of meteors. We drove first to one place, but due to light pollution it was not the idea location we thought it would be. So, we were off to another location, we ended up getting lost a couple times trying to find the place we wanted, but in the end, around 2:45 we ended up at a great location and were able to see quite a few meteors. It was actually pretty amazing. They were just so bright and beautiful. After about an hour of watching we decided we were exhausted and headed back to my place. Of course, when we got home we weren’t quite ready to go back to bed and ended up chatting about a similar adventure we took in college, where we drove up into the hills to see a meteor shower and one of the girls that came with us feel asleep on the drive and missed the entire meteor show! We were laughing and reminiscing for over an hour and finally got back to bed close to 5am!

This whole evening cost us exactly nothing (ok, maybe a couple dollars of gas, but we really didn’t drive that far), but I know it is one of my best memories in a long time and it will stick with me way more than the joy of finally getting my first set of matching bedroom furniture delivered earlier that day. That bedroom furniture was huge to me when I got it, just hours earlier. I was so happy to finally have my room feel like it had come together. I had been wanting it for a long time and I still really love it. But I know that in 5 years when I am reminiscing about times past, I will remember the laughing in that car as we made yet another U-turn while trying to find that second location, laughing about how bad the lyrics of 90s hip hop was when taken out of context, or the sight of all those meteors shooting across the sky!

We must constantly remind ourselves that it is the little things in life that bring us the most joy! I am not saying that memory making is never brought on by an expense, such are your first trip abroad, or your first home. But we usually remember the time we had on that trip and the memories made in that home, not the fancy hotels we stayed in or that fact the house had three bedrooms and 2 baths. And so many more of these memories that mean the most to us are the simple ones, like the ones that made this weekend for me. That time staying up talking to your best friend or spending one last weekend with a loved one at the end of their life or laughing uncontrollably with your child in your homemade cardboard fort, many times it is those moments and memories that really stick with you.

So, remember to focus on the memories and the moments and not the things that clutter our life. A lot of the time we focus so much on obtaining things, we miss these simple pleasure, even though most of our best times are when we appreciate those simple pleasures! So, get out there and go meteor/memories hunting!