make monthly happy lists

but it hasn’t been..
in fact..
there’s been so much to be happy about lately
that i haven’t been writing it..
i’ve been in the middle of it.
which certainly is not a complaint.

So…
here are some new things that i have thoroughly realized (once again, in some cases) make me happy…..

~ michael.
~ teaching little kids
~ autonomy v. interdependence
~ thunderstorms
~ books…lots of them.
~ snapdragons & gerber daisies
~ God’s idea of Jubilee
~ clementines

Oh how behind I am…

~ The Port of Miami
~ the word “Yes”
~ snuggling
~ those “Green” lightbulbs that look like corkscrews
~ Tool songs
~ the NZ group, Fat Freddy’s Drop

I’m a little behind it would seem….
But here are some more happy things…

~ old rave photos
~ Scrubs
~ lunar eclipses on the beach
~ peppermint
~ Jack Johnson (sigh)
~ fireflies
~ postcards from long ago
~ photos of my grandparents when they were my age

Here’s some more for this week… so many things to be happy about. :) (one may notice that I’ve had somewhat of an international appetite recently)...

~ knowing global change is possible
~ egyptian music
~ lanterns
~ mochi green tea ice cream balls
~ bookstores
~ pictures of my grandparents when they were my age
~ rhombitruncated icosidodecahedrons
~ popples (from the 80s!)

...make me very happy.

I found possibly one of the first happy lists I ever created (probably circa senior year of high school). It was stuck between pages of my copy of “The Little Prince.” I was pleasantly surprised at how many things on that list STILL make me really happy. Here are a few of those items…

Senior Year List (2000)
~ chinese food
~ palindromes
~ Hemingway imagery
~ wet grass
~ ugly couches
~ lucite purses
~ Lucky Monkey
~ Holden Caufield
~ kissing tension
~ garlic
~ wearing long sleeves w/ shorts
~ technicolor
~ strawberry milkshakes
~ shrinky-dinks
~ post-it notes
~ Jack Kerouac

So here’s another installment from week 2 of the happy lists…

~ Japanese water gardens
~ ship friends
~ Biblical philosophy discussions
~ rainbow sprinkles
~ Two Buck Chuck
~ pay day (the check and the candybar)
~ hiking

So the whole point of this goal is to continuously refocus myself on the positives of existence. Also, I just like making lists of things. Anyway, it often feels like I’ve been getting stuck on the side of my attitude that is less understanding and compassionate and more easily frustrated and distracted. I had an english teacher in high school that taught writing lists as one legitimate form of written expression. I always appreciated her very much for this. I’m getting off track.

well. not that these lists need to be publicized, (and I seriously doubt that this will be read by anyone else), here is just a cross-section sample of the first list.

19 January 2007
~ Gator National Championships (Basketball and Football)
~ Tibetan blue poppies
~ orange cream slushes
~ drawings from my students
~ the Hubble telescope
~ Los Arcos in Cabo San Lucas
~ frisbee dogs