For Extra Credit: Happy Thoughts

(orig. posted january 2 2007)

For Extra Credit: Happy Thoughts
Current mood: good

I often think of my high school English teacher my sophomore year. He would read this book to us everyday. "14,000 things to be happy about."

So, he would read from this book. And for extra credit we could turn in our own happy thoughts lists, as many or as few as we wanted. That year I turned in so many of my own happy thoughts lists, I earned myself an A+++++++.

I wish I could read those lists again. They were simple, silly at times, poignant at others (or so I remember), but the point was clear: it is possible to appreciate and value the simple things, to be happy in the simplicity of life. And all these simple things add up to one thick book full of 14,000 things. From the blurb on the back of the book: "a quirky, compulsive, irresistible list of all the little things that make us happy, items, places, moods, thoughts, celebrations & our daily bread."

After much digging through my basement, I found my copy on my bookshelf in the living room, where I had "thoroughly" searched for it in the first place. It's funny the things I wrote in the margins at age 14 or 15. Maybe I wasn't as poignant as I thought I was.

But anyway, here is a page from the book, page 24 to be exact, selected randomly:

raiding the refrigerator
waffles with berries and fresh fruit: peaches, nectarines, apricots, and bananas
daffodils dancing on fresh clean breezes
Difficult, Tennessee
leg of lamb and cheesecake with fresh strawberries
ragged rain clouds scudding over Long Island Sound
an edging of pansies in front of an inn
high-banked, one-car-wide lanes that lead to picture-postcard thatched villages
Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl
wild cherry orchards
the corner of the bed that's impossible to reach when putting on new sheets
Neiman-Marcus stores
switching places in bed with your spouse
thick fur on the bottom of rabbits' feet
trim jeans
white chocolate that comes gratis after a meal
writing your memoirs
brilliance
things that fortify the spirit
Palm Beach tan color
bringing a sense of adventure to a children's birthday party

Although I can't say I necessarily agree with everything she's written on her list, you get the point. So with that said, here's a happy thoughts list from yours truly:

Elvis Prestley's song Fools Rush In
geek specs
the word "shampoo"
notebook computers
the word "recollection"
a glass of cold, refreshing water
books
pens and journals
my "Reading is Sexy" bumper sticker, on my new laptop
happy thoughts
sleeping
wearing comfy clothes
hyberbole
writing my own book and calling it "14,007 things to be happy about."
people's names
chocolate
the book "Chocolat"
bubble baths
dressing up
swingsets
going for walks just for the sake of walking
re-reading favorite books
reading new favorite books for the very first time
pondering
thumb rings
short hair, after being known as the girl with the really long curly hair for most of my high school "career"
calling high school a career
yoga
dawdling
being with friends and feeling totally at ease, like how you feel with your closest family
my all-time favorite song being by Mr. Big
song lyrics
california
smiling's my favorite
elf!
taking it all in stride
Florida beaches and just sitting in the sand and staring at the vastness of the ocean water

Well, anyway. When I get overwhelmed with all the drags that are life, I would do well to remember my happy thoughts.

Currently reading : The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom (A Toltec Wisdom Book) By Don Miguel Ruiz Release date: By November, 1997