a year of happy

sunday gratitude

This early Sunday morning,
I'm feeling grateful.

Grateful for:

• yesterday's snow, which gives us another week before we have to prune our apple trees. (I knew there was a reason I could be glad for snow in March!)
  .
• opportunities to start fresh.
  .
• friends--new and old.
  .
• my sweet little grandson's smile.
  .
• Sunday worship, a time to sing and learn and feel spiritually refreshed.
  .
• a teenage son who still likes his mom. 
  .
• the ability to learn new things.
  .
• the strength to do hard things.
  .
• strong feet that carry me wherever I need to go.
  .

.

What are you grateful for
this beautiful March morning?

the three 3's that inspire me

On her blog yesterday,
my cute cousin posted
her favorite things in threes--
and she invited her readers
to do the same.

Her favorites inspired me....
and so I'm doing it!

These are the three 3's
that lift me up,
encourage me,
and motivate me
to keep going.

Songs

Come to Jesus by Kenneth Cope

Dream Big by Ryan Shupe and the Rubber Band

Viva la Vida by Coldplay (sung by these kids)

Places

Snowbird in Little Cottonwood Canyon, Utah

photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/vxla/ / CC BY 2.0

The Salt Lake LDS Temple

The Ocean





Books

The Greatest Salesman in the World

The Book of Mormon

A Heart Like His





What are the three things
that motivate and inspire you?

we are all connected

 

"From the standpoint
of daily life....
there is one thing we do know:

that we are here
for the sake of each other -
above all for those
upon whose smile and well-being
our own happiness depends,

and also for the countless
unknown souls
with whose fate
we are connected
by a bond of sympathy.

Many times a day
I realize how much
my own outer and inner life
is built upon the labors
of my fellow men,
both living and dead,
and how earnestly
I must exert myself
in order to give in return
as much as I have received."

Albert Einstein

and i say, it's all right

.

 

.

cheer up, get happy, and all that jazz

.
How do you cheer yourself up
when the winter blahs
have got you down?

Do you listen to good music?

.
Do you get back to nature?
.

.



Do you nuzzle a baby's cheeks?

.

Gretchen Rubin
of The Happiness Project
shared a list of
19 tips for cheering yourself up.

Here's what is
so interesting about that...

The list was made 200 years ago!

It's true.
Gretchen read it in a biography
of the English writer Sydney Smith.

In 1820, Sydney wrote a letter
to his friend, Lady Georgiana Morpeth.
It seems she was
down in the dumps
and needed a lift.

The list has some
really good ideas.
(And some are a little quirky.)

Here are my timeless favorites:

• Be as busy as you can.
• Struggle by little and little against idleness.
• Don’t be too severe upon yourself, or underrate yourself, but do yourself justice.
• Do good, and endeavour to please everybody of every degree.
• Live as well as you dare. 

.
You can read the entire list
at The Happiness Project.

.
Check it out...
and let me know your favorites!



. .

taking my "happy" temperature--5 things I've learned so far

I've been working on my
happiness project
for just over three months now.
I think it's time to
evaluate--
to take my "happy" temperature!

Looking for something good
to write about
every single day
can be quite daunting.
And life-changing.
And fun.

5 things I've learned so far

1. I'm taking more time to notice the world around me. There is so much beauty in nature, but I'm usually moving at too fast a pace to see. Knowing I have to come up with something good every day helps me enjoy the small things that are actually so huge--like a sunrise, or a thunderstorm, or a flower.
   .
2. I'm paying more attention to people--from a fly-on-the-wall perspective. I notice kindness and quiet goodness in ways I hadn't before. I see ways that people express love--tender looks on faces and gentle gestures--things that are so natural for people they don't even know they do them.
   .
3. The most poignant lessons in looking for good come in the thick of not-so-good experiences. There is something so true about the saying, "you have to know the bitter to know the sweet." Some of the sweetest lessons I've learned have come as I've looked for the good at times when I thought there was none.
   .
4. I am learning that I can find something good in everything.
   .
   
5. And I am learning that looking for things to be happy about helps me be grateful, and optimistic, and hopeful. It's all in the way you look at life, isn't it? 

.

I'd love to hear from you!

What makes you happy?
Do you think of yourself
as an optimist?
How has looking for good
changed your life?

.

.

** A Galileo thermometer is a thermometer made of a sealed glass cylinder containing a clear liquid and several objects whose densities make them they rise or fall as the temperature changes. It's a perfect visual description of my "happy" thermometer!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevendepolo/ / CC BY 2.0

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the first day

I had big plans
to sleep in today.
But I woke up
at 5:07
with my head filled with
thoughts,
and plans,
and ideas.

At about 6:15,
this saying popped
into my head.
I remember it
from a long time ago...
was it a song,
or maybe a commercial?

Today is the first day
of the rest of your life.
.

.

 


I like it.
It makes me think
of looking forward,
not back.

It lets me start fresh.
It lets me forgive myself
for falling short.
It allows me to be
my best self.
Today.

Here's to new beginnings!

I can't wait to get started!

how you look at it...

How do you look at life?

Is the glass half empty...or half full?

Do you see the donut or the hole?

I've always considered myself a pretty positive person...
but lately my attitude has left me
wondering.

I decided I need to start
looking for the good.

Call it
counting my blessings...
or
developing a PMA...
or
enjoying the journey of life.

I need to do it.

So I had this idea.
A positively good idea.

For one year
I'm going to look for the good in my life
every day
and write about it.

I know there is good all around me--
every single day--
everywhere.

I just need to open my eyes
and see it.

And that's what being happy
is all about.