What Makes You Happy?

During a recent visit to Starbucks, I saw a display in the store with a bunch of Post-It notes stuck to the wall. Upon approaching, I found the question posed in today’s blog title – What makes you happy? On the counter below the sign were stacks of Post-It notes and pens. Evidently, this particular store had had this up for a few days based on the number of notes stuck up on the wall.

I added my own items to the list (on that particular day, it was good tunes and a road trip as we were out and about for the day). Afterwards, I got to thinking… what does make me happy? Why not pose the question openly, like Starbucks did, and ask the world? Or at least ask you.

What makes me happy? Here’s a brief list of a few things at the top of my mind.

  • Isabelle & Roxie
  • My family & friends
  • Road trips
  • Disney World
  • Loud music
  • Good books
  • Good food (okay, most food to be perfectly honest!)
  • Silence
  • Being in nature (whether forest or beach)
  • Discovering new things
  • Bacon 🙂
  • Cooking (when I feel like it, not when I NEED to do it)
  • Visiting new places
  • Going to the movies
  • Having dinner out with my wife
  • DINK days

Obviously this is not an exhaustive list. There are so many things that make me happy. Sometimes we get so caught up in the day-to-day of our lives that we lose sight over the pleasures; over what truly makes us happy.

And you, my dear reader, what makes you happy? Feel free to share!

Alone with my Thoughts

I went for my daily 6AM walk this morning, as per the norm. The only difference today is that I was alone, as my wife is out of town for work. This meant I was fully alone with nothing but the sounds of the birds chirping, the wind blowing and my thoughts running through my head. Let’s take a short stroll through the random oddness that is Chris’ mind.

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Tyson

Yesterday, my brother, Stephen, and his wife, Laura, said goodbye to the third member of their family. Tyson was a big, loveable beast of a dog. His presence was powerful – a loud, booming bark and large, heavy paws that he would put up on your shoulders as he came to say hi. But behind it were sweet, kind eyes. He was the definition of his bark being worse than his bite.

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Rewind

One of the side effects of moving is that it allows you to go through belongings to sort out what is good enough to make the cut to your new destination and what becomes fodder for the trash heap. Compound that with a COVID-19 world where you’re staying at home more than you normally would, and you have ample time to revisit your glory days of yore.

One of the tasks I assigned myself after we moved last summer was to go through all of the photo albums and stacks of printed photos that I had and organize them. (You see, kids, back in the good ol’ days, we used to have to take pictures with a camera, not a phone, and then bring the film inside said camera to a specialized shop to have the pictures developed. It was a whole process. And until the advent of digital cameras, you didn’t even know if you got the shot you wanted until after the photos were developed!)

Among the pictures, I found a couple that triggered some dear memories – that of the greatest job I have ever had (and possibly ever will).

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