Happy Everything!

Two years ago I bought a white bowl with black letters inside touting: Happy Everything!

In January 1990 I published my first-ever article on doing spring cleaning on New Year’s Day. Like always I was the first person writing about something like this.

January is the perfect time to clear the cobwebs from our head as well as the clutter from our house.

To “spring clean” our thoughts and let go of the thinking that holds us back from risking change.

My New Year’s resolution is simple: to give and receive joy. That’s all.

I have no interest in buying things anymore to feel happy. I was given cash as a Christmas present so treated myself to items in a gift shop.

Otherwise I wouldn’t have doled out the money to buy something.

The goal as I see it is to have what you need and love what you have.

Oprah Winfrey gets at this with her quote in the Gratitude issue of Breathe magazine:

“Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more.

If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.”

Giving and receiving joy doesn’t cost a dime. The feeling you and the other person gets is priceless.

I believe that gratitude is like honey that flows freely: We should pour on the gratitude for our fortune in life, for the people we love, and even for whatever struggle we have.

What we learn from going through a hard time we can teach others to instill hope for healing and recovery.

That is my ultimate goal: To bring Joy to the World at Christmas and throughout the year to everyone I meet.

No one should feel like they’re going it alone. No one should feel worthless in the eyes of others either.

Which is why I’ll mix metaphors and say too that Gratitude is like Miracle Glue holding our humanity in place.

My wish is to give others hope for healing the cracked parts and recovering joy.

To enjoy life should be what it’s all about in every season not just at the holidays.

Happy Everything!

Love, Lashes, and Lipstick

Alas this book is out of print and that’s sad. I would buy a used copy in good condition. Or you can try to check it out of the library.

Mally Roncal’s life story is inspirational.

Her a.m. and p.m. beauty ritual gave me a shot in the arm of confidence to try what she recommended.

Proof that inspiration can be found in a book or a bottle of foundation.

The pandemic has been going on for almost 9 months. The length of time to birth a baby an idea a plan a new You.

After reading Love, Lashes, and Lipstick I set off to set a new goal or two.

In the coming blog entry I’ll talk about one book that made all the difference to me in achieving my goals.

It can be debilitating sheltering indoors. The outbreak is rising in a second wave. More ammunition for taking joy in simple things.

Like washing your face at night. Moisturizing your face in the morning.

Being grateful for what you have instead of being envious of others who have what you don’t have.

Serve up an extra helping of gratitude to yourself this Thanksgiving.

The colonists plundered the nation from indigenous people. We should not be celebrating the myth that Thanksgiving was a harmonious lovefest between pilgrims and Native Americans.

Only I say why not reclaim the truth that we are all here because of a benevolent Creator who wanted us to be here?

The spirit of counting your blessings on Thanksgiving might just be the remedy for total despair while living through the pandemic.

I’m grateful for every ray of sunshine that comes into my life:

The sun through the mini-blinds and the sunny personality of Mally Roncal lighting up the pages of her memoir.

Downtown Train

green coat

This is the coat that proves my point that fashion isn’t frivolous.

Wherever I go people compliment me on the coat. Even a homeless guy (I kid you not) told me: “That’s an attractive coat.”

It’s from J.Crew and was touted as peacock green. I used a 25 percent off coupon code to buy it.

The coat seems to put others in a good mood when I wear it.

I boarded the downtown train. Clutched the pole near the door because it was standing room only.

After two stops I felt a hand on my sleeve. I turned around thinking it was someone who knew me wanting to say hello.

A guy standing nearby motioned to a newly empty seat. “Thank you.” I sat down.

As soon as I arrived home I installed the Tom Waits song “Downtown Train” in my iTunes library. Waits’ gravelly voice is like no other.

I was touched that a stranger didn’t take the empty seat for himself. Such acts of human kindness restore my faith in the inherent goodness of people.

Is hate learned? I don’t think people are born hating. It comes from seeing others as competition. I talked about the American pie metaphor years ago in this blog: how everyone’s grabbing not just for their fair share, but bigger and bigger slices at the expense of allowing others to have their slices.

The scarcity mindset (Brene Brown wrote about it in one of her books) is alive and well. This mindset is reinforced when citizens are allowed to go hungry. When others are told they must compete to get into elite colleges. When any number of prerequisites are imposed for obtaining success.

There’s a better way. There’s a way out of the fear of not having enough or being enough.

It starts with practicing gratitude. It continues with having compassion.

As we head into the holidays I want to give some insight in this blog that I think can empower readers.

A quote goes like this: gratitude is when what you have is enough.

Especially at this time of year a lot of us can be depressed. My goal is to help readers feel good.

It comes down to slowing down and stopping to smell the American beauties of life.

Seeing the beauty in yourself and others is a way to feel merry and bright. Good people are out there. Kind people are out there.

In the next blog entry I’ll quote a star athlete who riffs on feeling good in the guest column she wrote in the New York Times this week.