Sparks of Happiness

On Sunday, Brianna read her poem at a gathering a local museum.

 

I love how happy and positive it is.  We should all release sparks of happiness and fill the sky with happiness.  Lord knows we would all be the better for it if we did.

So I decided to look at my life and finds a few "sparks of happiness" that make my life more worthwhile.

* First, of course, is Brianna and the sparks of happiness she brings with her writing, and with her book club and all of the conversations I have with her.  Some of my favorite parts of any visit to Santa Barbara.

* And, of course, her sister is no slouch either.  Lacie is not at a point where our interactions can be the same as mine with Brianna, but my favorite moments with Lacie come when she asks me to read to her, since she and I are such book lovers.

* A current real spark of happiness is Alix, my mother's Alzheimer's buddy.  She is bringing such pleasure to my mother and she seems so intent in finding ways to enrich her life.

* A new spark of happiness is a woman named Ilyse with whom I have become audio buddies.  We participated in a swap called Voice Message, where you have two partners and you make an audio message to send to each.  Through this Ilyse and I seemed to hit it off and we have started exchanging periodic messages.  She's in Virginia and as she is the wife of the minister of 3 churches, I suspect we have a lot of different ideas, but so far I am enjoying getting to know her.

* This time of year is a real spark of happiness which comes from wildflowers.  Poppies have absolutely exploded around here, in people's yards and on public areas. Poppies are my favorite wildflower and I can only smile every time I pass a big mass of poppies.

* This weekend was a real spark of happiness that of the three shows we saw, all were shows I like and none required deep reflection to figure out the hidden meaning.  A bonus was how easily the reviews came when I started writing them.

* It tickles me no end to do "Today in My History" and discover that one year ago yesterday I wrote "The Three Show Weekend" and yesterday I wrote "The Four Show Weekend."  It's a kind of serendipity that makes me smile.

* A real spark of happiness that I experience every night is watching Walt with Polly.  Over the 8 or so years that she has been with us, they have developed a real bond and they have their evening routine, which consists of Polly waiting until we have finished dinner and then she barks to be let out (she hasn't barked at all to this point).  We let her out and she runs out into the yard, barking her head off...she does this every night and we haven't figured out what she is barking at.  When she comes back in, she stands in front of Walt and barks, which means she's ready to call it a night and he gets up, closes the door and gives her a treat while we have our ice cream.  She settles down in her bed until Walt gets up to kiss me goodnight, when she yaps a couple of times so he'll remember to pet her too.  Once he pets her, she goes to sleep.  It's just so darn cute it makes me smile every night.

In days like these when there are often not a lot of positive things, it's good to remember  those sparks of happiness that make life worthwhile.