Happiness 12-11
stalking badgers on a summer’s eve; the shovel striking a buried safe in the yard; the heart of the message.
Year: 2010
Happiness 12-10
moonlight on the snow; a letter overflowing with news and love; massaging her feet.
Happiness 12-9
frolicking with a monk seal on the beach; equanimity; glass slippers.
Happiness 12-8
exploring the caves inside a glacier; compassion; freshly-made, homemade pies.
Happiness 12-7
meeting the eyes of a tiger through the mangrove tree; a good laugh; playing mini-golf late at night.
Happiness 12-6
skating on a frozen pond, holding hands; cashmere socks; closing your eyes to go to sleep.
Happiness 12-5
climbing the steps to the top story; clairaudience; being graciously received by the king and queen.
Happiness 12-4
driving the ribbon of highway; the Sacred Island of the Moon: Loch Maree; not drowning but waving.
Happiness 12-3
footsteps crunching through the sunlit frost; kissing with noses; cyclamen on the dining table.
Happiness 12-2
spinning the antique globe; looking out over the desert from the top of a dune; grateful acceptance even for something hard.
Happiness 12-1
a spark of imagination; weighing anchor; that time you whispered something I didn’t know.
WriteSpa #52 – The Art of Face Reading
WriteSpa – An Oasis for WritersWhen my brother and I were young, my parents took us to museums. Often. As art critics and lovers, they would stand in front of just one painting, sometimes for several hours at a time. We would listen to stories they would tell us about an artist or a story surrounding a particular scene, or we’d roam the rooms of paintings on our own. But, eventually, we always ended up on a museum bench, watching the people.
One of our favorite games was to lower our hats over our eyes so that we could only see a person’s feet. Looking at the shoes they wore, we would try to imagine what the person’s face looked like. It was surprising to us how often we were wrong. People, we learned, don’t select shoes to match their faces, and often they don’t even seem to match their personality. […]
Happiness 11-30
discovering a secret door; being offered a Moroccan glass of rose-scented tea; the sound of oars on the loch.
Happiness 11-29
a caravan filled with silk and spices; kissing the top of a baby’s head; Ponte Vecchio in the sun.
Happiness 11-28
a thoughtful gesture; the aspen leaves shaking in the snow; that time we held hands in the dark.
Happiness 11-27
boating down the Mississippi into St Louis; a friend’s birthday; fresh carrots with the earth still on them.
Happiness 11-26
the tall grasses at the edge of town; cobblestone streets; saying the right thing at the right time.
Happiness 11-25
a Spanish shawl flung around her shoulders; discerning dawn from night; the Honeymooners.
Happiness 11-24
sitting at a Parisian cafe, arguing with your artist friends; a gift of potted miniature roses; an antique chest with an old letter secreted in the lining.
WriteSpa #51 – Thanksgiving
WriteSpa – An Oasis for Writers
Although Thanksgiving appears to be a uniquely American holiday, the mood now all over the world feels hectic, festive, familyish, planning ahead to the end of the year – and it sometimes can feel dark. Very few holidays are not based in some way on seasonal or pagan rituals – whether they are secular, as is Thanksgiving, or religious. In northern climates (in days long ago), this might be the last time you could see families and friends till spring. In agricultural civilizations, it’s the celebration of the end of harvest. It’s okay to feast now; by February there may be very little left. Nowadays we don’t have that worry; instead the anxiety has crept inwards, and emerges as family-related issues: passionate reunions, guilt, or nostalgia. This time of year can be fraught with tension, excitement, friendliness, food, warmth, light, depression, and so on. […]
Happiness 11-23
striking the right note; entering the temple of Khadro Ling,in Brazil; the gaze softening.
Happiness 11-22
sweetening the pot; the moment before the applause; dawn over the Indian Ocean.