Happiness, Joy and Thankfulness: Part I

It has turned out to be a great week (regardless of my stagnant NaNo count: 22,700ish). It didn’t necessarily start that way, but it certainly has become one that I really am happy about. It’s given me a lot of reason to think about happiness, joy and thankfulness.

Deciding what makes me happy (or at least adding to that list) has been a large part of what I’ve been trying to accomplish over the past several months. I’ve always known some things make me happy: sunsets, flowers, the smell of dew on a spring morning, a walk in the fog by the creek, spending time with friends, the birdsong that wakes me in the morning. But the journey of trying to figure out what makes one happy, I think, might be simply about accepting the feeling of happiness from those moments in life.

Not so surprisingly, the fact that I’ve been thinking about what makes me happy got me into a conversation about such with a good friend of mine. We’re a lot alike; the synchronicity that results from that is scary sometimes, but in this case it gave me a bit of perspective about my happiness that I didn’t have yet. That perspective has helped me begin to realize more of what I am happy about – or perhaps more correctly, that which would make me happy if I allowed it.

This conversation devolved into a list, as I’d venture to say such conversations are wont to do. Here’s a smattering of that list; of course, it’s an agglomeration of the conversation and I certainly can’t take all the credit for the part of list that appears here:

Family, good friends, seeing your breath in the morning's first light as the sun just starts to peak over the horizon, the stars, the low rumble of a kitty purr on your chest. The Annual Yarborough Chicken Stew. A good book. Beethoven. Mozart, to some degree, but certainly Ella Fitzgerald. Good concerts. Knowing that somewhere, somehow, someday, someone loves you more than you will ever know or will ever deserve. Love. Holidays. Finally having a clean house. Real hugs. Not the hugs that casual friends give when meeting, but the hugs that feel as if they are trying to hold in all of the good feelings while squeezing out all of the bad ones. Cajun crab dip and water crackers. Mexican food. Pizza. The smell of summer. The ocean. The mountains. Camp fires. Cookouts. Massages. Being alone. Being with everyone who loves you. Sitting in the hot tub. Playing in the rain. The smell of star-gazer lilies. Pictures of friends and family. Finding a great piece of art. Being able to afford that piece of art. Coffee. Good pancakes. The smell of pumpkin candles in the fall, cinnamon candles in the winter. Getting drunk with your friends and knowing they won't hold it against you. Good wine. Most parties. Long phone conversations with your siblings. Fixing the computer. Fixing stuff around the house without needing help. Knowing you can do that without needing help. Being able to negotiate well. Singing your favorite hymns. Singing in the car. Wake Forest's Annual Community Lovefeast, after they cut the lights off at the end and everyone sings "Morning Star." Knowing what a Moravian Star is and having one because you appreciate its meaning. An old typewriter that works. Watching families reunite at the end of the concourse at the airport. Real conversations. Appreciating the bad because it brings out the good. Finally settling into a really difficult yoga pose after months of working on it. Achieving your goals. Finishing the triathlon. Swimming. Realizing you solved a pretty serious problem while you were swimming. Libraries. Book sales. A genuine smile from a stranger. Knowing that your in-laws (the ones you got from your siblings) like you, even if they do think you're weird. Being a little weird. Loving it because it makes you, you.

That list of things that makes me happy got even longer this week. Yes, I’d say it’s a direct result of Thanksgiving (and a few other things that happened). I can now add this to it:

Happening upon a dear old friend in Best Buy. Finding something you’ve been looking for. Finding something you’d lost. Celebrating the return of something that was lost. Making a hard decision and knowing you’re right about it, the second after it’s made. Hearing this, upon entering the house at which you’re celebrating thanksgiving, because it’s so darn funny: “Happy Thanksgiving! And what type of alcohol would you like to start with?” Doing something to be able to say you’ve done it. Helping out. The Salvation Army bell ringers. Movies (but not scary ones) . . .

What would you add to the list?