My next-door neighbor Mary saw me outside this afternoon and said, "Oh, Amy, I was just going to come find you. Here is the first Glad (iola) to bloom in my garden... I thought you would like it." (Everyone needs a next-door-neighbor-Miss-Mary!)
So a few minutes later, as I was bending over picking some herbs from my garden to put in the soup inside on the stove, I thought, "This is a good day." I was feeling very hippie-ish in my flip-flops and tacky Hawaiin-print-loose-shift dress (it was so hot this morning after my walk that no other clothes would do! Strangely enough, Pete LOVES this dress... guys have weird fashion-sense sometimes). The afternoon was just good. My husband was mowing the backyard to get ready for a birthday party on Friday, my daughter had actually helped me make homemade cupcakes (she got all the little cupcake liners ready, and poured the batter in all of them all by herself -- I wasn't even in the room to help her! BIG accomplishment for her), my son was helping me harvest the herbs, and my other son.... well, he wasn't exactly helping, but he wasn't destroying anything at the moment either. I was fairly certain that the spinach-tortellini soup I was making would actually eaten by everyone for dinner. And now I had fresh flowers for my table -- one of my all-time favorite things.
Then as I went back in the kitchen, poured myself some wine and made some fresh herb butter to go on the freshly-baked bread out of the oven, I thought, "This is a very good day." Yes, it's niney-crazy-eight degrees out, and yes, I have a sore throat (which I'm hoping doesn't turn into a family-wide cold), and the kids keep squabbling and yelling, but overall, I am very happy.
I read a quote this morning from a Harvard professor who teaches a class on Happiness. (I could go on all kinds of tangents on that... but I won't) He says that if we're waiting for a big, major victory or event in our life to make us happy, we'll be disappointed. Big things like that only form a small part of the mosaic of a happy life. And a happy life is shaped incrementally, experience by experience, moment by moment. We could all debate the truth behind happiness, the relationship it has to True Joy, etc.,.... but the idea of our lives being a mosaic jumped back in my mind this afternoon.
And today was a beautiful little chip added to mine.
So a few minutes later, as I was bending over picking some herbs from my garden to put in the soup inside on the stove, I thought, "This is a good day." I was feeling very hippie-ish in my flip-flops and tacky Hawaiin-print-loose-shift dress (it was so hot this morning after my walk that no other clothes would do! Strangely enough, Pete LOVES this dress... guys have weird fashion-sense sometimes). The afternoon was just good. My husband was mowing the backyard to get ready for a birthday party on Friday, my daughter had actually helped me make homemade cupcakes (she got all the little cupcake liners ready, and poured the batter in all of them all by herself -- I wasn't even in the room to help her! BIG accomplishment for her), my son was helping me harvest the herbs, and my other son.... well, he wasn't exactly helping, but he wasn't destroying anything at the moment either. I was fairly certain that the spinach-tortellini soup I was making would actually eaten by everyone for dinner. And now I had fresh flowers for my table -- one of my all-time favorite things.
Then as I went back in the kitchen, poured myself some wine and made some fresh herb butter to go on the freshly-baked bread out of the oven, I thought, "This is a very good day." Yes, it's niney-crazy-eight degrees out, and yes, I have a sore throat (which I'm hoping doesn't turn into a family-wide cold), and the kids keep squabbling and yelling, but overall, I am very happy.
I read a quote this morning from a Harvard professor who teaches a class on Happiness. (I could go on all kinds of tangents on that... but I won't) He says that if we're waiting for a big, major victory or event in our life to make us happy, we'll be disappointed. Big things like that only form a small part of the mosaic of a happy life. And a happy life is shaped incrementally, experience by experience, moment by moment. We could all debate the truth behind happiness, the relationship it has to True Joy, etc.,.... but the idea of our lives being a mosaic jumped back in my mind this afternoon.
And today was a beautiful little chip added to mine.
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