Happiness
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Reaching higher
“There are two ways to be happy: improve your reality, or lower your expectations.” ~ Jodi Picoult Lately, I’ve heard too many things that shock or disappoint me. Things that challenge my faith in humanity. Things that make me doubt the judgment and character of the folks around me. Things that make me anxious about the future. You too? Part of the problem boils down to the fact that everyone is accessing more “news” than they can thoughtfully process and fact-check. (Thanks, social media.) And it frightens me — how easy it is for some to fall under the dark spell of misinformation and ludicrous conspiracy theories. So what does…
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Unexpected joy
“Joy is not made to be a crumb.” ~Mary Oliver Suddenly, everyone’s talking about “joy” — a word that’s typically reserved for holiday greeting cards. When was the last time you felt joy? Joy is unbridled optimism and unabashed positivity, which can be hard to feel if you’re mired in the habit of negative thinking. Dark energy, after all, is both pervasive and contagious. So, who doesn’t want to experience joy for a change? Mary Oliver’s poetry always resonates. And when a dear friend shared “Don’t Hesitate” in an email last week, the word “joy” jumped off the screen and lifted me from the funk I was in. It was…
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Small treats and rituals
“One of the secrets of a happy life is continuous small treats.” ~Iris Murdoch After dinner, my husband and I grab a mug of tea or coffee and head for our favorite chairs to watch World News Tonight with David Muir on TV. Sometimes, on summer evenings, we treat ourselves to ice cream. It’s a ritual that our dog, Coco, happily anticipates — because we also reward her with a handful of dog biscuits if she finished her dinner. Watching her savor each cookie never fails to bring me joy. Sometimes we set our goals impossibly high, deluding ourselves into thinking that happiness depends on huge wins and rewards. But…
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Happiness is …
“Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it.” ~Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love Sometimes we get lazy. We believe that happiness just happens if we’re lucky — or when it’s bestowed upon us. We might think that happiness is a reflection of good fortune that other people have. In today’s quote, Elizabeth Gilbert suggests that happiness is an active noun. She believes happiness is…
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Here and now
“I have lived large parts of my life in wonderful circumstances that I utterly failed to appreciate. Reasons to be happy were everywhere, but somehow I didn’t connect with them. It was as though I was eating but couldn’t taste the food. Finally, I’ve learned to celebrate the good while it’s happening.” ~Marianne Williamson The weather in northern Michigan was chilly and unpredictable while Doug and I were there last week. And just as we’ve learned to expect when we’re visiting off season in Glen Arbor, many of our favorite shops and restaurants were closed. Still, there’s something both restful and beautiful in the loneliness of our state’s northern landscape…
