Just Plain Happy
Wednesday, April 11th, 2007i think it is important to really notice our good thoughts and feelings when we have them. The nature of being human is that we typically have many emotions during any particular day. If we are fortunate, the good and neutral overshadow the down feelings… although sometimes the balance is less than optimal.
Today was sort of a perfect day. After the snow we had just over a week ago, it was glorious. The sun shone, and it felt warm when the wind stayed calm. On days like this, Lansing is at least as pleasant as any other city and I’m glad to be here.
Altu and I had our weekly sushi lunch date and afterward we went to a coffeehouse to chat until I had to go to work. We sat outside for maybe 5 minutes to say we did, but the wind got the best of us and we took cover inside.
On the way from the coffeehouse to Foster Center, I rolled down my windows (thanks to the heat the car had absorbed sitting in the sun while parked) and played the radio more loudly than I usually do. I was in a business district, not a neighborhood, and I tried not to worry too much that my not-that-loud but louder-than-usual music might bother others. (In a neighborhood I would have rolled up the windows or turned down the volume.) I totally drank in the music and the sun and the springtime.
The National Weather Service says it only got up to 60F today (15.5C). It felt better than that with the sun. I was a very happy woman!
The happiness followed me home, long after dark. May a little of it rub off on you folks!
A related thought:
If you wish to think about focusing on specific thoughts/feelings (such as happiness) and allowing yourself to do things outside the norm which might make you stand out (such as playing music with open windows in my case), I would love to invite you to read Deborah Robson’s blog, The Independent Stitch today. Deborah Robson is the publisher and co-author with Priscilla Gibson-Roberts of the excellent book, Knitting in the Old Way.
She interviews the author Eric Maisel about his new book Ten Zen Seconds. (I have grown much from working with his book Fearless Creating.) He says in that interview:
The more you care about how others view you, what others are thinking about you, how seemly you are looking, and so on, the less permission you will have to do anything “unusual†in public, whether that unusual thing is stopping to write a paragraph, do a little tai chi under a tree, or spend ten seconds centering.
Perhaps that quote will entice you to go and read more???