I’ve written before about the book 14,000 things to be happy about by Barbara Ann Kipfer. I think that focusing on happy thing of the things we are happy about is a fabulous strategy for improving health and happiness. So, I decided to do a monthly blog post about my happy things. Finding things to be happy about in January was a little tough. But, that’s probably when I need it the most.
January is the month of my deceased daughter’s birthday and this year it was the month when my mother died. If that’s not bad enough, it was also my mother’s birthday. This involved frantic travel to get to her before she passed, the painfully sad event, and the family drama that frequently rears its ugly head around such events.
If I wasn’t intentional about it I could have easily missed all of the things I’m grateful for and feel happy about.
Here’s my January 2024 list:
- A caring Hospice chaplain
- Abundant sea shells on the beach
- Watching ocean waves under an amazing cloudy sky
- Finding a restaurant that could manage food allergies that overlooked the water.
- Phone calls from friends and family
- Successfully completing a composition I’d been working on for a long time
- A hotel that offered compassion and a last minute reservation change without a fee
- Slip on shoes
- Flights that left and landed on time
- Unsweetened iced tea
- Puppy kisses
- Beautiful hymns of faith
- Allergy medication
- A large woodpecker on the tree outside my office window
