There are places I return to often, not because I need anything, but because they hold the whole world in them, and I never tire of looking and learning. They give me great pleasure and match my endless curiosity.

Garden centers are one. I go exploring for plants and stay an hour. Every season rearranges the shelves. Bulbs give way to seedlings, seedlings to summer bloom, then the colorful rows of mums and mulch as the light changes. I love not knowing what I’ll find, and I love that even after years of visiting, something still surprises me. A color I haven’t seen. A plant I’ve longed for suddenly appears. A pot shape I didn’t know I wanted.

Hardware stores do something similar. Aisles of tools whose exact purpose I can’t always explain, glues for every material on earth, light bulbs in shapes I didn’t know existed. A kind of humility matches the wonder and excitement of walking those aisles. A reminder of how much specialized human ingenuity goes into keeping a house standing, a hinge working, a leak fixed. I rarely buy much. I just like knowing it’s all there.

Drug stores. The sheer abundance of what we’ve invented to help ourselves live well. Shampoos and vitamins, bandages and brushes, medicines with names I can’t pronounce. It’s oddly moving that whole aisles of products exist because people wanted to feel a little better, look a little different, heal a little faster.

What these three places share, for me, is the sense of endless variety contained in one ordinary and amazing place. They ask nothing of me except attention, and they give back waves of curiosity and pleasure every time.

So I’ll ask you:

Where do you go (maybe without even needing anything) that gives you pleasure and makes you want to know more? What holds the world for you, in its own particular way?

PS — I’ve been calling this feeling “pleasurosity” in my head. Pleasure and curiosity, fused. Just for fun.

Thanks – Michael (he, him)

Please share my Daily.
This matters too – Pleasure Choices.

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