I discovered my love of reading when I was still a young boy. I have been reading voraciously since then. Lately, I have become more obsessed with writing. I get so much pleasure from stringing words together that every spare minute I have, I find myself gravitating toward pen and paper or a computer to write.

The thoughts I express in my writings are quite random. I sometimes touch on serious subjects and occasionally a few readers tell me that they found some nuggets of wisdom in something I wrote. Those are icings on the cake. What I find most enjoyable is the process of piecing words together to form sentences, and then turning around, several times in many cases, to rearrange them to improve sentence structures. Although I have a blog now, I don’t publish everything I write. There are times when I have doubts that a “finished” article would make sense to anyone. I simply archive those without feeling that I have wasted time writing something that is unfit for public consumption.

I am fluent in a number of languages, including a few Ghanaian dialects and Russian, but I mostly write in English. Because English is not my native language, it is not always easy for me to write in it because I expend a good bit of effort looking for the right words and expressions to fit into sentences. My writing would certainly flow a lot faster if English were my first language. Even then, I find that having to slow down and search for appropriate words only adds to the pleasure of the experience.

Because writing can be a mentally taxing exercise, even when it is done in a native language, some people will probably disagree that it can be considered a simple pleasure. That is how I view it though. It is one of four “happy activities” that I like to engage in nowadays. The other three, one of which is the aforementioned reading, are definitely easier on the brain. Taken together, the four interests form a really nice package that keeps me out of trouble.

Reading and writing are definitely at the top of that list. My third happy activity is a simple walk in nature. Because I spent much of my youth on a farm in Ghana, the natural world has always had a special appeal for me. However, in my early years, I didn’t have the luxury of time to admire the many beauties of my surroundings. Farming in Ghana wasn’t mechanized (it still isn’t) and it was backbreaking having to work with basic tools. In that state of constant physical and mental exhaustion, the primary focus was on survival. It is a different case today. The small town of Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, where my family and I live, has a lot of greenery. On most days during the warm months, I spend one or two hours, sometimes more, just walking and enjoying the area’s natural environment.

Being around bodies of water, large and small, is the fourth pastime. I am not a swimmer so I almost never go into any water. I just like to walk along beaches and marvel at the majesty of oceans and large lakes. For that reason, whenever I am in Chicago, I make time to stroll along the beautiful shores of the magnificent Lake Michigan. At home, I make do with a small river and a couple of creeks along parts of the walking trails I take.

When I lived in Vermont many years ago, I once traveled to Walden Pond in Massachusetts to see the replica of Henry David Thoreau’s cabin. Nowadays, I often think that it would be the ideal place for me to live. The cabin would provide a quiet space for reading and writing, with the adjacent landscape featuring a large, beautiful body of water surrounded by greenery serving as a complement. Unfortunately, the cabin is not available for sale or rent, as far as I know.

It occurred to me recently that I am quite fortunate to have these four interests. The world we live in today is filled with so much strife that it has become an absolute necessity to look for escapes periodically. Both reading and writing require a great degree of solitude. It so happens that my wife and I have different work schedules so I often walk alone. That is something fans of Liverpool, the English soccer club, will probably frown upon because the club’s anthem is “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” But I enjoy those solitary walks because I get a lot of my writing ideas during that time.

I have heard many people, especially since the beginning of this year, say that they have disengaged to a large extent from the news, social media, and sometimes the public square altogether. While I understand their reasons for doing so, it is quite a troublesome trend. The detachment of such large sections of the population from the broader social life will only widen the fissures that have torn the country apart.

America is not the only nation that is deeply divided. Many other countries in different continents are as well. As I observe our world today, I sometimes wonder what simple pleasures other people have that may be helping them to cope with these proliferating social stresses. In my case, the periods of solitude in those tranquil environments have a powerful cleansing effect on the mind.

What are your simple pleasures?