Pleasantness

"I’m catching the scent of the cinnamon," Elias whispered, as if letting her in on a secret. "It’s particularly pleasant today because the wind is coming from the east, so it lingers right here in this doorway."

Maya realized then that Elias hadn't been an odd man at all. He was the only one who had truly been awake. She picked up a pen, looked out her window at a toddler laughing at a floating dandelion seed, and began the next entry. pleasantness

One afternoon, a young girl named Maya watched him. He was standing near a bakery, not buying anything, just standing there with a soft smile. "What are you doing?" she asked, tugging at his coat. "I’m catching the scent of the cinnamon," Elias

Maya sniffed. She had smelled bread before, but she’d never noticed it. She closed her eyes. Suddenly, the air felt warm and sweet, like a wool blanket on a cold night. "I see it!" she exclaimed. She picked up a pen, looked out her

Elias kept a small notebook. Every evening, he would sit by his window and record the day's findings.

His neighbors thought him a bit odd, always pausing at "inconvenient" times. They saw a man stopping in the middle of a sidewalk to watch a sparrow bathe in a puddle, or someone closing his eyes to feel the exact moment the sun dipped behind the clouds. To them, these were delays. To Elias, they were the very fabric of a well-lived life.

Elias smiled. "You don't see pleasantness, Maya. You let it happen to you."