Happiness....

What makes a person happy? The world seems like it is getting to be a really dark place at times, so I thought I'd just share ten things that make me truly happy - because we all need a little extra happiness every now and then.

1. My family; time spent with my family is one the easiest and quickest ways for me to get happy.

2. Music; I love music of all kinds - I am usually not too picky about what I like to listen to but one thing is for sure, I need music like I need oxygen. I think that life should have a soundtrack and I'm always putting songs to moments in my life. Thankfully, where I work we can listen to music while we work. Granted it isn't always something I like but any music is better than no music and when I find a song I really like, for about 3 minutes I am just in heaven. The song of the moment is Young and Beautiful by Lana Del Ray.

3. Reading a good book - there is just nothing like being able to sink into another world for a little while...or a long while. You know, like those books where you tell yourself that you'll just read one more chapter and just one more chapter and then just one more chapter... Characters that you mourn for when they aren't there anymore, places you want to visit because of the rich detail with which they're described; yeah, reading a good book makes me insanely happy.

This is so true - especially if the book is good.

4. The feeling you get on Saturday morning when you wake up, realize it is Saturday and you have nothing to do and can therefore roll over and go back to sleep. That is a special kind of truly happy right there.

5. The love that I get from all the sweet little kids in the church nursery - being the nursery coordinator isn't always so easy; dealing with the adults is often the most frustrating part, but the babies almost always make up for it. There is something about the funny things they say, their sweet little smiles and hug from little arms. The love of a child makes you feel pretty happy too.

6. Cooking something new; especially when it turns out to be just as good or better than I imagined it would be.

7. Traveling. Seeing new places and returning to old favorites. There is a whole world out there to see and I plan to do my best to see as much of it as I can in the time I'm given because getting to see new things and experience all that the world has to offer - that makes me happy.

This is on the list...heck, the whole world is on the list.

8. That 5 o'clock feeling - you know, the one you get when you walk out of the door of work at the end of the day knowing that the rest of the day is yours to enjoy. Even if you love your job, I think you probably love 5 o'clock just as much as I do. It makes all of us members of the work force pretty happy.

9. My friends make me happy; my friends who know me and even when we've been apart for a few weeks, a few months...even a few years, we can pick up where we left off and everything is just perfect. I have wonderful friends and they make me so happy.

10. My sweet puppy - especially when he climbs in my lap and lays his head in my lap or when I come home at the end of the day and he dances around excitedly when he sees me coming. As Charles Schulz said in his Peanuts comic strip, Happiness is a warm puppy. You're so right.

Exactly.