My Happiness Project

For my book club this month, one of the ladies chose the book, The Happiness Project, by Gretchen Rubin.  As a huge believer in personal happiness as a way to global happiness, I was an enthusiastic reader!  Gretchen embarked on a year long quest to see if she truly could increase her own happiness and along the way found that she also increased many others' joy too.  Each month she focused on a particular area of her life, her marriage, her daughters, her work, having more fun.  And she came up with personal resolutions she tried hard to follow each day, complete with a check-list.

In the spirit of increasing my happiness (and maybe yours), every Wednesday I will be posting about 3 things that make me happy + 1 method I'm trying to find more happiness + 1 photo.  We'll just call it Happy Wednesday (a great day right in the middle of the week - named for Norse god Wodin!).  Maybe exploring creativity will be a good beginning project!

Three Things

 1. Waking up and knowing I have a whole day ahead of me with my girls.  Posted on my bathroom mirror, a little watercolor picture of a boy with his chickens, with the words:  "Waking up this morning, I smile.  Twenty-four brand new hours are before me.  I vow to live fully in each moment and to look at all beings with eyes of compassion"  ~ Thich Nhat Hanh.

2.  The sound of birds outside my window.  We have 3 bird houses and they get busy and hatch babies every spring.  This renewal of life and the enthusiasm of the chirping cheers me greatly.

3.  My 13 year old daughter's innate compassion.  One sweet example:  noticing a little 5 year old friend was needing some one on one attention, she woke early this morning (not her favorite idea), finished her chores and piano, and took her to the park to play.  Just because.  

One Idea

I started running with my younger daughter (age 11).  I love to run but don't always make the time or often overdue it and exacerbate an injury.  But this time I've got a partner, we've got a goal (Sweet Pea 5K run) and we play an imagination game while we run (sort of an Avatar fantasy - I am currently a Nymph who controls the weather and communicates with all living things - fun stuff for the imaginatively stifled!).  This fills my resolutions to have more fun, get better exercise, get more sunshine, stretch my creativity and do something with my daughter that she loves.