Happiness is...

"Man is the artificer of his own happiness." Henry David Thoreau

Yesterday I was uninspired.  I was looking for inspiration.  Well, it appears that 45 minutes on the elliptical at the gym is inspiring.  Today, I may not have anything interesting to say, but at least I feel like writing.  What else is there to do when jogging in place for 45 minutes, but think and feel!

My thoughts turned to why I was feeling so down.  I had a wonderful time with my girls over Spring break and Easter was lovely. We watched Godspell and I had never seen it before. We always watch Jesus Christ Superstar, but I had never seen Godspell. It was really good and I was taken back to the 1970's when I was a teenager.  I started to think about happiness because I was always happy in my teenage years.  I began to think about those drinking glasses that made an appearance some time in the late 70's or maybe early 80's.  You know, the ones you got at fast food restaurants, the ones that had "Happiness is ..." and some cutesy drawing of a boy and girl on them.  So I decided to start listing some of the things for me that mean happiness.  Here are a few of them, as the list could go on and on and on and on!

Happiness is-

1. The smiling faces of your children

2. The smell of bread baking in the oven

3. Lillies of the Valley in bloom

4. A large and loving family to grow up with

5. Being with my dad

6. Music, lots and lots of music of all kinds

7. Friends

8. smelling a new born babies head

9. a full moon on a clear evening

10. the view from atop a mountain

11. traveling in Scotland

12. visiting new places

13. the sight of a breaching whale

14. a Barbra Streisand movie

15. a Barbra Streisand song

16. going to the movie theater with someone special and sharing popcorn

17. watching the sunrise

18. the smell in the air after a spring rain

19. the changing colors in the fall

20. picking up a ringing phone and hearing the voice you have been longing to hear

Well there are tons more happy thoughts for me.  Maybe in a future post! 

Oh and this morning when I left for work, the waning gibbous moon was surrounded by clouds and appeared to be painted on the sky. The hint of rain is in the air and the wind was blowing so briskly that the flags were fully extended on the building near where I work.  It was an awesome sight.