We all have them. We treasure them, and we may talk about them a lot or not at all. Some we feel a little guilty about. Others we feel the full weight of "Well, I shouldn't...", especially if we're doing them instead of knocking off something on our always long to-do list or when a deadline looms. One thing all guilty pleasures have in common: we look forward, like a kid waiting for the first firework to burst, to the times when we can indulge in them...and then we wonder if we should have spent that time with them.
My guilty pleasure? Crossword puzzles. I love everything about them. The clues. The answers. Filling in the first square. Filling in the last one. Okay, I don't love everything about them. When I get the whole puzzle done except one square, and I can't figure it out in either direction, I wonder why I started working on puzzle in the first place.
But overall, crossword puzzles fascinate me. I love how words mesh together, and I enjoy groaning over puns in the clues. There's the fun of learning new words, although I'm not sure I'll ever use the word "eft" (name of a young newt/salamander)in everyday conversation or in a book. Can you imagine the handsome hero of your favorite romance novel, leaning a shoulder nonchalantly against a tree and turning to the heroine who is looking up at him with a soft, come hither gaze, as he says, "Pardon me, darlin', but you've got an eft on your shoulder"?
One thing I've discovered about my guilty pleasure with crossword puzzles: It can become consuming. I don't like giving up on puzzles until I've exhausted all other routes to the solution (every route except googling the answer). Walking away unfinished from something that I've put so much effort into annoys me because I know once I give up on it, I won't go back. So I stubbornly will sit there and stare at the clues even though I've tried every letter in the alphabet and none of them seem to work.
The heroine of my new Harlequin Love Inspired An Amish Proposal (which releases today in print)
Rescued: Mother-to-Be
Pregnant and without options, Katie Kay Lapp is trapped between two worlds—abandoned by her baby's Englisch father, not ready to return to her Amish family. With nowhere to go, she's rescued by the unlikeliest of heroes—the man whose heart she shattered. Months ago, Micah Stoltzfus courted her, envisioned a future with her, until she chose the big city over him. Now bound by duty to protect mother and child, Micah offers a solution—marriage. Though his heart never healed, he still cares for the Amish beauty. He knows he'll be the father Katie Kay's baby needs…but can he show her he's also the love she's always wanted?
Katie Kay's solution has to be - just as mine is when dealing with that last empty crossword square - to stop letting stubbornness and guilt keep her from savoring the joy of the blessings right in front of her. I'm going to try to keep that in mind the next time I try tackling the New York Times crossword puzzle on a Sunday afternoon.
So while crossword puzzles are my guilty pleasure, I'm trying to feel less guilty about it. What is your guilty pleasure and how do you keep it in balance?
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