I love walking in the woods on a warm spring day, searching for edible mushrooms.

I love my wife’s awkward smile when she’s been paid a compliment she richly deserves and doesn’t know how to respond to it.

I love reading a book from the library that both takes me to another place and teaches me something new.

I love my oldest son’s rapidly growing sense of humor.

I love watching people stretch their bodies and minds when they compete at a sport.

I love when I can make someone unexpectedly smile.

I love my daughter’s boundless creative impulses.

I love my parents’ endless giving nature.

I love the smell of lilacs.

I love the way my infant son cuddles in against me when I hold him.

I love seeing the faces on my closest friends when they’re thinking – or when they’re laughing.

I love the view of a winter landscape, especially ones with a trail or two of footprints across them.

There are so many things about life that I love dearly, that bring me so much joy. Almost all of these things come to me for free. Why do I need to spend money or time on accumulating more things when there are so many wonderful things already at my fingertips? Simply put, I don’t.

Life gives us more things to cherish and enjoy and love than we can ever possibly experience, and most of those things come to us with little or no cost. Step back and enjoy them instead of looking beyond them and chasing something you can never quite reach. Look at what you already have before desiring what you don’t

A few days ago, I tweeted something that I think is a very appropriate way to close this article:

“Life is beautiful. Don’t ever give up on it, even when it doesn’t look all that beautiful to you.“