I’m grateful it’s Sunday. Enjoying a little bit of everything today. The sun came back. Here’s Happy taking a nap in a sunbeam with her tennis ball. She looks very chubby from this angle.
Took a little exercise, read a little homework, has a little fun at the Botanical Gardens, washed a little laundry. Moderation makes me happy. (Be careful what you mock 20-year old Katy, cause 40-year old Katy will become it.)
-Katy
I’m a relative newcomer to sympathetic joy – taking honest and unmitigated delight in the happiness of others. I grew up with an exaggerated sense of scarcity (Sark calls it Scare City) that made it difficult to rejoice deeply when someone else got something I thought I lacked.
But yesterday my co-workers ate one thousand donuts. And even though sugar makes me crazy and I didn’t want one myself – I was happy they were happy. -Katy
It was snowing when I got up, and it still is. I’m grateful for the quiet, and the blanket protecting the plants in the garden. Although the thaw last week was a gift, making me feel less winter-bound.
There’s a little, velvety, orange cat in my lap, purring intensely, as though pushing something along with his rumbling.
I have an entertaining Victorian murder mystery on CD to listen to as I work. God bless the library’s recorded book collection.
- Estyn
*grateful for minute 4 of my workout, when I feel expansive and silly and think of favors I would like to do for other people
*grateful that minute 12, when I think of throwing up and giving up, is over for today
*Also grateful for minute 21 of my 20 minute workout
*tangerine
*happy with my weight
*peace lily thriving in my windowless office
*grilled tempeh with tomatoes & peppers and basil
I had a lovely stretch of luck last week. On Thursday night I was looking for a necklace that I felt sure I had in stock when I discovered a jewelry roll that I hadn’t unpacked after the last show, with SEVEN necklaces in it. No points for memory or smarts but all the same “YAYYY! Christmas!!!” It was the finding-a-forgotten-dollar-in-your-pocket feeling — multiplied. By a lot.
On Friday I had clear roads on my drive into the city and throughout the day whenever I rode the subway the train pulled in just as I reached the platform.
My bead supplier had some turquoise beads I haven’t seen in ages. Many strands.
At the Banana Republic on Fifth Avenue there was the best ever changing room attendant in charge. I went in looking for some show-appropriate clothing, feeling less than hopeful. Jane was friendly, and kind, and had me in and out in 12 minutes with an entire outfit that looks great. At no point during the exercise did I hate myself or the world. A miracle.
After that I popped in to Anthropologie and fell in love with a couple of mugs.
I’ve been carrying around a gift card from their store for 6 months, since discovering it in a packing box from the apartment before last, which I vacated two years ago. The small print on the back says they deduct money after the first year, and I calculated that just maybe there would be $2 left. At the checkout I handed over the gift card feeling embarrassed, only to find the entire amount intact. The girl even gave me change!
On my way home I thought about the lucky feeling and leaned into it, enjoying it. I thought, “Very soon I will feel bad about something. It’s good to notice the good.”
When I got home M had made coffee. And there was a message confirming that Wolfie was sick. “Very soon I will feel bad about something.”
It is hard to hold on to ‘the good’ when ‘the bad’ happens and seems so heavy and important. But I think it may be an essential skill in being happy. Having a light touch and refusing to lock focus on the negative. Enjoy the coffee. In the new mug. Do the next right thing for the cat. Feel good when good comes your way. Notice feeling good. And say thanks.
- Estyn
PS. Wolfie is doing a whole lot better.
The locker lottery! Out of the 300 or so people who work in my building, I get to use one of the ten lockers outside our new gym. For a year! I was surprised yesterday by how happy this made me.
I’ve been reading The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin, and in the first month of her year long project she focuses on increasing her energy. Having a locker and a gym at work feels like a great boon toward my new goal of exercising 6 days a week. Six days!
Yesterday I did 20 minutes on the elliptical, 15 minutes of stretching, and got to watch half a West Wing re-run. So great.
I used to get annoyed by the concept “it’s the little things that really make you happy” but it’s such a blessing to love little things.
-Katy
Or “pie-lates” as M calls it.
It was not that long ago that I scoffed at the idea of yoga, but I’ve taken a lot of yoga classes and now lookie here, I’m a-doing pie-lates.
It was bound to happen, as are all the things we have mocked over the years. (“Beware what you mock” is the most frequently used phrased in conversations between Katy and myself. Not for nothing.) So here I am, praising the joy of working out on machines best described as Ikea meets S&M.
I mean seriously. Watch your mocking!
But oooohhh…. good stretching.
- Estyn
I typically despise exercise, my favorite activity is lying down reading & eating. So today requires an extra focused gratitude list:
*Grateful for my health and ability
*Grateful my job installed a bunch of high end workout equipment in our building
*And a shower!
*In a windowless room, but with these cool fake skylights that remind me of my happy lamp
*Grateful that when I looked in the mirror this morning, I thought I looked funny and cute on the elliptical
*Grateful I got to work out all alone in the magical new room
*Grateful for my iPod, how did I ever workout without one?
-Katy
Oh god I love my happy lamp. It’s a fluorescent therapy lamp for seasonal affective disorder, and the best $100 I’ve spent in my entire life. I still prefer the summer and want to sleep longer hours in the winter, but I no longer struggle just to deal from November to April.
This morning it actually felt like sunshine as I ate my oatmeal and read my happy books while gazing lovingly into the light.
I researched mine at an online non-profit that has self-diagnostic tests, recommends particular lamp brands and features, and can give you suggestions for how to use it. -Katy
The predicted five to nine inches of snow turned out to be a dusting which melted away in the rain, taking an inch or more of old snow with it.
Today I stayed inside, close to the stove, making jewelry and listening to a book on CD and the wheezy snoring of Annabelle lying in front of the hot fire.
There’s food in the fridge, prepared, ready for dinner. Now that the sun has gone down the lamplight is cozy. I’m warm and comfortable.
- Estyn