Happiness is…..

Joey at Joeyfullystated did a post last week (after she was tagged to do so) about happiness. I loved Joey’s approach to this in breaking it into sections. I also loved the things that make her happy. She sounds like a pretty alright-kind-of lady to me. 🙂
Joey broke her happiness post down into things that bring/brought her joy, bliss, happiness and contentment. I think that this was an awesome idea and so I’m going to follow suit.

In no particular order here is my list:

Joy
– Seeing two lines on every single pregnancy test I have ever taken (all 8 of them)
– Holding my newborn babies for the first time
– Holding every single one of my grandchildren for the first time
– Being there for the birth of my last grandchild and watching her come into the world
– Seeing the Garden Gnome for the first time (well I had seen him many times prior to this but never really noticed him before)
– Watching my First Born graduate university
– Being there for the Son’s high school graduation and the Teen’s primary school graduation

Bliss

– The sound of running water
– Coming home after a big day at work
– Taking my bra off at night
– Putting my pj’s on
– A hot shower at the end of the day
– Laying my head on my pillow
– A good massage
– Travelling the open roads with my family
– Having a camera in my hands
– The quiet of early morning
– Being at home on my own
– Curling up with a good book
– Enjoying my music
– Walking without pain

Happiness

– Creating with my hands
– Writing
– Helping others
– Being ‘on a roll’ with my study
– Hitting ‘print’ or ‘send’ on my assignments
– Watching my grandchildren in the pool
– Seeing my children all play nicely together (yes, two of them adults but they still need reminders to play nice some days)
– Spending time with my family
– Laughing at the Garden Gnome’s ‘special’ sense of humour
– Being surrounded by beauty – whether it is flowers, old architecture or nature
– Waking up and realising that it’s the weekend
– Compliments from others
– Goodnight kisses
– Affection from the Diva (it’s hard to come by)
– Surprise gifts
– Walking along the beach
– Sewing
– Beating a level on Candy Crush, Farm Heroes or Diamond Digger
– Reading lovely comments on blog posts
– Knowing I am loved
– Learning more about myself and who I really am

Contentment

– Napping on the lounge (or couch)
– The breeze on my face
– Waking up after a good night’s sleep and great dreams
– Being in our spare room (where I meditate, journal and sew)
– Finishing a blog post
– Sitting inside on a cold winter’s night with a full stomach and surrounded by those I love
– Turning 50 this year
– Being alive
– Listening to the sound of my family laughing and playing together

There really is so much in life to be grateful for and happy about. And whilst I may go off at times about things, I am so very aware of where I am right now.
Life is full of things that disappoint us or make us upset but how we handle them is wholly within ourselves.
I choose to be happy.
I choose to learn and grow.
I choose to be grateful.

And really, you can’t really want too much more can you?