Talmud and "The Earthly Delights"

Because of my recent spine surgery, I will soon regain the intense pleasure I experience towards life. Today is Day Five post-surgery. The pain is well-controlled and is even subsiding. I try to walk as much as I can, up and down my street. Walking was a strain at first, but I'm slowly exercising new muscles that hadn't been used due to intense sciatic pain.

I am also starting to have moments of total appreciation of what the Talmud calls, this "Garden of Earthly Delights."

Legend has it that after you die, the first thing God asks us is: Have you experienced my Earthly Delights?

During my two years of intense physical pain, I could not appreciate Beauty. This was not just a personal loss, but an existential one as well.

Everything cries out: Here I am. Look at me. Aren't I unique? Aren't I beautiful? Sample me in my many forms. And come back for more.

Right now, here in my living room, there is so much beauty to see:

- the patch of sunlight on my pink armchair
- the pink crepe myrtle in the neighbor's yard
- all the artwork I've done over the years, decorating the walls and hanging from the ceiling
- a wall-hanging my niece Melissa brought back from Ecuador, where her dad is from
- and the lone maple tree in the backyard, home to thousands upon thousands of creatures

Stop, pause, wonder, and appreciate.

So, at long last, Beauty makes a comeback.

Click twice to enlarge these three deer in my backyard.