As I begin, I want to give great, big, juicy thanks to both Karl Elvis for setting me up and to Brandon for patiently answering my never-ending stream of WordPress newbie questions and for spending way too many hours holding my hand as I tried to mess about with this template–and then letting go of my hand and doing stuff himself that I couldn’t handle. You guys are great and I can’t thank you enough.

The blog is good enough for some action, but there will probably be little glitches here and there; if you find one as you read, please let me know so I can refine things.

Overall, though, I’ve got to say I’m completely in love with WordPress in a way I wouldn’t have imagined possible. Until the day I switched over, I swore Movable Type was just better and easier to deal with all around, and I’ve discovered I’m wrong. It’s been a joy to play around in WordPress, and the interface for the most part is incredibly simple, if not quite as customizable as MT. But it’s more easily and intuitively customized, if what you’re looking for is available.

I also really love the clean, bright, simple-yet-refined look of the blog theme I found. It’s called Neoclassical and was created by the extremely talented Chris Pearson. He’s got a number of really beautiful themes over there–go and check ‘em out.

Okay, so much for the geekiness.

You may be wondering about the blog title/subtitle. It came to me a week or two ago when I was getting my hair cut (and highlighted, so I had a lot of time to think). I came in to the salon and my stylist–who I completely adore–came to get me from the waiting area and told me he’d brought in some magazines for me to look at that he thought I in particular would like. And something about that seemed so touching; that someone I didn’t know all that well had been thinking of me ahead of the appointment and had made an effort to bring in something he thought would bring me some special interest or delight.

And I *did* love the magazines; they were alternative and unusual and intelligent and a little sweet and idealistic and a little clever and wry; they were exactly me. It was such a small thing, something that if I’d failed to stop and think about, which I might have done on a busier or more stressful day, I could have just taken for granted or not noticed enough to take the time to savor and enjoy. And it made me think as I was sitting there, “Really, little things like this; that’s all that it takes to make life good.”

I realized I spend so much time thinking about the Big Gain later on…the Perfect Moment or the Perfect Life, and that always brings me so much anxiety, thinking about why I am not THERE already. But when you sit there holding a small gift of friendship someone thought to give you, or your hair is washed in warm water, followed by a head massage, or you notice the sun is falling through the window slats in such an amazing way…that is the stuff that brings perfection into life.

Or what I mean is, I realized perfection’s already here. Happiness is already here. I just have to look really closely to notice it. In this culture of consumption, we are always looking ahead for that Next Big Thing, whether that is an item, an achievement, or a sensation. We think the bigger it is, the more joy it will bring us. But I think maybe we’ve been duped. Where is the happiness in always looking behind us to see what was absent, or ahead at what could be better? No, I think to find true daily joy and delight, I have to stop doing that, and calm myself and look right where I am, right then, right NOW, in this tiny little moment, and savor what I can find that is good.

I think the happiness may not be in the Next Big Thing after all, but, unpredictably, in the Now Small Thing instead. That tiny thing that when you notice it and crack it open, is bursting with so much more flavor and joie de vivre that it absolutely drowns out the weak tepidity of thoughts about the imperfect past and the unfulfilled future.

That’s what I thought that Saturday recently as I sat there, just feeling full of glowing pleasure in these tiny things. And I thought, I want to start a new blog. I’m done with the old one.

And that’s why this blog is here. And that’s why it’s called A Garden of Earthly Delights (at least for now)–to remind me that that IS what we live in every day. A garden of delights, right here. Right here on your ratty couch. Right here at your stupid job. Right here in line at the DMV. Right here. Now. Delight is growing all around us. We just have to stop and breathe and think small–and then look for the green saplings rising out of the cracks.

I’m really glad you’re all here. I feel so happy I shared this with you.

Tonight, you’re my saplings.