On Excitement

It's raining today!  It started toward the end of our hike, enough to feel it, see it, and hear it, but not enough to get soaked, get sucked into the mud, or be uncomfortable for the ride home.  And it excited me!  It started as a burst of irrational, almost primitive, happiness, and then evened out into a deep pleasure and a sense of contentment. 

To some extent, this was a model experience of excitement, which is strange to think about.  At first, it would seem like the ideal would be to be as excited as possible for as long as possible, but think about the last vacation you had to wait months for.  Extended excitement becomes excruciating, and if the vacation doesn't lead to happiness, pleasure, and contentment, then the excitement is forgotten, and the high expectations can actually lead to a worse experience. 

So rather than try to find exciting things, I'll try to find things that provide a pop of excitement that evens out into happiness and contentment.