If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is

A few years back I read a quote in Vonnegut’s Timequake that has stuck with me since.

”My uncle Alex Vonnegut, a Harvard-educated life insurance salesman who lived at 5033 North Pennsylvania Street, taught me something very important. He said that when things were going really well we should be sure to NOTICE it.
He was talking about simple occasions, not great victories; maybe drinking lemonade on a hot afternoon in the shade, or smelling the aroma of a nearby bakery, or fishing and not caring if we catch anything or not, or hearing somebody all alone playing a piano really well in the house next door.
Uncle Alex urged me to say this out loud during such epiphanies: ‘If this isn’t nice, what is?’”

About smellincoffee

Citizen, librarian, reader with a boundless wonder for the world and a curiosity about all the beings inside it.
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3 Responses to If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is

  1. Cyberkitten says:

    Very true. I always try to notice stuff like that. It’s incredible just how many people *don’t* notice what’s going on around them – even when they’re not mesmerised by their phones!

  2. Isn’t this a fabulous reminder to enjoy life?

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