Relishing the Small

"The pursuit of happiness is a most ridiculous phrase, if you pursue happiness you'll never find it." - C.P. Snow

We spend too much time trying to find happiness. But if we overuse that "certain unalienable right," we will neglect the other two: both life and liberty. I've stumbled upon a handful of other blogs on which people post lists of the everyday things that make them smile, laugh, or feel good. I was inspired to develop a creative list of my own.

Think of it as my expression of gratitude for the small things that mean the most. So here are 50 things -in no particular order- that can make my every day full of life, liberty, and happiness itself. Maybe these things make you smile as well.

1. Crock pot dinners.
2. British and Australian accents.
3. Going dancing.
4. Sharp crayons.
5. High notes at the end of a song.
6. Barbershop quartets.
7. A really good pianist, cellist, or violinist.
8. A well edited photograph.
9. The first bite into a crisp apple.
10. The smell of a new book.
11. Reading a new book.
12. Sending a letter to someone far away.
13. The smell of freshly ground coffee.
14. Grass clippings (everything about them is wonderful.)
15. Seeing a rabbit, pheasant, or deer cross your lawn.
16. Slamming the door to make a flock of blackbirds fly away in a big black cloud.
17. Someone who wears dreadlocks well.
18. Celtic music.
19. Going barefoot, rain or shine.
20. Smelling every candle in a candle store.
21. Reading all the Children's Classics at Barnes and Noble.
22. Saying "surprise me" to the barista when ordering at a coffee shop.
23. Learning simple words in different languages. Kati ntegedde!
24. Food made by grandparents.
25. Stories told by grandparents.
Intermission...
"Think big thoughts but relish small pleasures." -H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
26. Lamplight.
27. Stomping around in mud.
28. Really loud thunderstorms.
29. Picking berries.
30. When the corn is so high that all the roads seem like tunnels.
31. Taking a nap in a hammock.
32. Building a fire and cooking over it.
33. Eating outside.
34. Bubble baths.
35. Tie dye.
36. Having a cool calendar picture for my birth month.
37. The popping sound a Pillsbury dough canister makes.
38. Putting my head out of the sunroof.
39. The smell of sunscreen.
40. Handmade pottery.
41. Getting a letter with a unique postage stamp.
42. Crossing any border into a different country, state, or town...
43. Being able to name and locate constellations.
44. Getting enough sleep that you wake up with the sun.
45. Finishing an exam before everyone else.
46. Wearing something that belonged to a grandparent.
47. A round of Kum-Ba-Ya by the fireside.
48. Face paint.
49. Finding money (or bobby pins, or anything useful) in a pocket.
50. Smiling (even if you have to force yourself to do it.)

So maybe you can think about what makes you smile, what makes you laugh, and what makes you happy. As Socrates said,

"The unexamined life is not worth living."

Reexamine what makes you tick. The more you think about it, the longer your list will become. Every day may not be good, but there's something good in every day.

The Field to the Left

"What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Dandelions have always been my favorite flowers, although in recent years I have switched to daisies after being told repeatedly that "dandelions are weeds!"

To my luck, I've grown up with a cornfield in front of my house, a wheat field behind it, and a soybean field to the right. And to the left? A huge field of dandelions. I remember getting teary-eyed when my father went outside with the weed killer to annhilate my precious flowers in the front yard -- but he always left the field to the left filled with them. To me, dandelions are as sure a sign of spring as snow is of winter...but so much more welcome!

The best part about dandelions? They are so predictable. Every spring morning as I sauntered through the dewy grass out to the schoolbus, the field to my left appeared entirely green, without a trace of any other color. But the moment I stepped off the bus each afternoon, the field was blossoming with countless beautiful little replicas of the sun. But it's a weed! Maybe so, but a very pretty weed.

What other kind of flower has whimsical white seedlings that can be blown away into the wind? What other kind of flower is acceptable to be picked from a strangers yard without consequence? What other kind of flower can you pop off the head and string the stems together into long chains while on the playground? None. Just dandelions.

Dandelions should be seen for their virtues, rather than as a nuisance as sensible adults see them. Dandelions were once used for all sorts of medicinal purposes and culinary artistry, because they are full of vitamins and antioxidants. Today, they are little more than a weed. Dandelions are the "a plant for which we once knew the use but we've forgotten it."

Let us not forget that beauty can be found in places where not everyone will agree. Remember that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, and go pick yourself a lovely, copious bunch of dandelions to brighten up your kitchen table. They are free, after all.

A 59,969,536 Patch Quilt

"I shall stand for everything that is light
and beautiful and true and wonderful."

-The Pig of Happiness, by Edward Monkton

I have a quilt on my bed made of eighty-eight patches all signed with messages from eighty-eight friends. Twenty-seven of those friends wrote something about my "infectious" smile or "contagious" laugh. To them, resplendence of character is what I will be remembered for. Emotional contagion: what a splendid thing!

It is a truth universally acknowledged (thanks, Jane Austen, for that wonderful phrase) that happy people make us happier, and sad people make us sadder. Apparently, there is now actual research to back this up. "A friend who lives within a mile and who becomes happy increases the probability that a person is happy by 25%. Similar effects are seen in spouses (8%), siblings (14%), and next-door-neighbors (34%)," says James Fowler of University of California.

The study showed that one person's happiness affects up to three degrees of separation...meaning your happiness could legitimately affect friends of your friend's friends.

What this means for me is that each one of my eighty-eight friends on my quilt has been affected by my happiness. In theory, that will affect each one of their friends (let's say they have eighty-eight). That happiness, in turn will affect each one of those people's "eighty-eight" friends.

So...that makes about 59,969,536 happier people.

I have a hunch 59,969,536 happy people could probably make this world a happier place. I'm not sure about you, but that is enough to keep me smiling. And I just might need to get a much, much bigger quilt.

Start spreading the happiness now...

Forgiving Fruit

'Tis a lesson you should heed,
Try, try again.
If at first you don't succeed,
Try, try again.

- Thomas H. Palmer

Grapes. Such a forgiving little fruit. If you eat a bad grape, all you have to do is try again until you find a good grape. With grapes, the bitterness only lasts a moment, until just one more try yields delightful sweetness.

This "if at first you don't succeed, try, try again" mentality that is subconsciously enabled when eating grapes speaks volumes to the power of persistence. If we are willing to persist with such a trivial venture, then why is it so difficult to persevere in bigger issues?

The terrific thing about perseverance is that it makes victory all the sweeter. Frederick Douglass said,

"If there is no struggle, there is no progress."

If the first grape you tasted was a bitter one, and you just gave up on grapes altogether, you would miss out on enjoying the sweetness a perfect grape has to offer.

Romans 5:3-6 encourages us to "Rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.

And hope does not disappoint us,

because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us."

So as you face challenges, bitterness, and struggles of any sort, persevere! There may be something sweet just around the corner.