Living Happiness

The robbed that smiles, steals something from the thief.
~William Shakespeare, Othello

(Almost) every Sunday on Living Happiness, we take the time to share our bright spots in the week in a little thing called The Joy List. We have celebrated joyful moments here … and given our appreciation for daily blessings … and today we are honoring those moments that have simply made us smile.

Sometimes it’s not easy to smile. Daily pressures wear on us and make us heavy. Difficult circumstances erode at us, wearing away our joy. But then, quite unexpectedly, something happens: maybe a child at the table next to us laughs and pours his cereal bowl over his head, maybe the guy next to us at the stoplight busts an MC Hammer move in the front seat of his car, maybe someone simply smiles at us as we pass them in the street. However it happens, these smiles can lift our spirits, change our scope, remind us that the absence of light in our dark times doesn’t mean that the light has ceased to exist.

As always, Living Happiness asked the question this week, “What moments have brought a smile to your face?”

Here is what we heard:

1. How happy my daughter was when “Cowboy Dan” at church said goodbye to her yesterday by name. It was hilarious – it was like her version of celebrity. She talked about it the rest of the day. ~Addie Campbell Nix

2. My doodlebug running through the yard from the afternoon bus drop,waving a red ribbon for winning 2nd place in both the frisbee-throwing contest on field day and for a painting in the school’s art competition. My boys playing hide and seek, fort, etc. all morning with the boxes I was using to pack … such imaginations and how happy they were with something so simple. The help of my mother-in-law and the new relationship we are building. Being given the keys to the cute lil house I plan to make a home for my family. ~Carrie Chappell

3. My 10-year-old called me at work two days ago to let me know he had put the dishes away for me. My daughter gave me a kiss and thanked me for driving her to pick up something she had forgotten. Last night my 2 teenagers were having a conversation in the living room (without arguing). ~Horte Hernandez

4. Got to see my little girl that is still growing inside me! She is healthy and getting big! How beautiful! ~Shelley Doolittle Bowers

And here are my additions:

5. Watching a dear friend spending time with her six-month-old daughter … and seeing this beautiful baby girl smile.

6. Being “bartended” by our neighbours’ three-year-old daughter, who kept trying to top up everyone’s glass. Half ended up in the glass, and half ended up on the table.

7. My husband yelling out, “GOAL!” for the neighbours to hear.

8. Lying on the beach, watching the kids playing football with a beach ball, like they themselves were in the World Cup.

Now it’s your turn:

What moments have made you smile this past week?

Wishing all of the many fathers out there a very special and happy Father’s Day!!!

If you would like to contribute to each Sunday’s The Joy List, join Living Happiness’s Facebook Community where each week’s theme is shared ahead of time.

Photo Credit hlkljgk

It seemed to be a necessary ritual that he should prepare himself for sleep by meditating under the solemnity of the night sky… a mysterious transaction between the infinity of the soul and the infinity of the universe. ~Victor Hugo

I live with a man who is a creature of habit. Each day he arises and pours himself a glass of water. He sits at the kitchen table, slowly sipping and waking up. Then it’s time for breakfast. Breakfast is a treat: eggs with sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, and feta. This is followed by a mug of tea.

And so the day goes.

I know I have my rituals, too. I wake up each morning and turn on the computer in the spare room (it takes ten minutes to boot). I walk down the hallway and into our front rooms and open the house: swing back shutters, secure windows, let the light in. As I’m doing this, the little brown kitty I’ve been feeding stands up and stretches and waits for me on the back welcome mat. I turn on the kettle and then pour some cat food in a little tin. I walk her out to the edge of the yard to where her dish is waiting … along with the two other cats who’ve figured out morning time is feeding time. I leave them to it and come inside and steep my tea – sometimes English breakfast, sometimes rose peach – then I sit and sip and slowly wake up too.

I am a big fan of rituals. I think of them as the pegs I can hang my thoughts and ideas on, the markers for my beliefs. Sometimes they represent something greater than me – a remembering of something, even a mirroring of what I would like to be. Other times they are simply comfort, a familiar thing I can wrap around me when the world seems cold.

In my own way, I feel they connect me to eternity.

It can be easy, though, for our rituals to take the place of our gods, for our moments of eternity to be reduced to finite markers of what we have or want to achieve. When this happens, rituals are no longer the infinity of the soul interacting with the infinity of the universe.

How do you honor ritual in your life?

How do you allow your soul to regularly interact with infinity?

Your comments today are welcome.

Namaste and peace,

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Photo Credit bigbluemeanie