Describe one habit that brings you joy.
If I forget they wilt.
They sag and look sad.
I can only water
This limited area
Viewed from the back door
And kitchen
Scent wafts in
And gives me joy.
Remembering to water the plants.
Tag: happiness
30 things…
List 30 things that make you happy.
Flowers
Sunshine
Icecream
Shade
Trees
Cats
Purrs
Music
Space
Symphonies
Radio
Television
Films
Documentaries
Food
Hugs
Painting
Gardening
Photography
Friends
Family
Honesty
Oceans
Mountains
Peaches
Home
Swimming
Art
Singing
Astronomy.
Happiness?
Looking at these kittens from 7 years ago cheers me up. The sun is shining, there is a nice film on the TV. But I really feel down and anxious. I want to talk to someone, but everyone has their own lives to lead and I don’t want to bother them. I could ring up but my phone is on the blink. I talk but the person at the other end can’t hear me although I can hear them. I feel like it’s a metaphor (is that the right word?) for my life, frustrated and worried. Will things ever be good again? Will I find a modicum of happiness? I don’t know.
3 cats and…
What are 5 everyday things that bring you happiness?
Three cats, birdsong, books.
My family is my cats, they keep me company, amuse and irritate, sometimes in equal measure. They are loving but also bonkers. Chasing each other around the house, up and down stairs, jumping up and sleeping on my chair when I’m out of the room.
Today I heard birdsong from the garden, the sun was shining and the wind had settled down, suddenly a blackbird started singing loudly. The song was thrilling, musical, lyrical. Complex and melodic. Blackbirds songs increase in complexity as they get older. It was beautiful.
Finally I’ve included books. I bought back some lovely art books from my studio. One is about Women Surrealist Artists, another about The Faery Garden by someone called Beatrice Phillpotts. There are more, images from Nasa about space exploration, micrographic images of plants, and other books.
These five things are everyday things that bring me great happiness.
Esther’s prompt, Nostalgia
I really like writing to prompts.
Here’s a short response to the word Nostalgia:
Nostalgia hits me all the time now. I long to be back in simpler times. Old TV shows from the 60s and 70s remind me of past times when I thought adventure was real. Hero’s could do anything. Irony did not exist and no one suffered real hardship. Nostalgia is sneaky, comfy, mostly happy. If I could make life better I would create nostalgic bliss.
2024
Late greeting to 2024’s calendar
You arrived at the start
Of January (not a wonder)
And ended 2023 at last
A year I don’t want to remember
Not a good year for me.
May this year be better and hopeful
A leap year, an extra day
February 29 a blessing
Where happiness might just stay.
Apart from that added adventure
The rest may be simply the same
But hopefully pleasant and gentle
I don’t want 2023 again!
Gentle music
What brings you peace?
Folk music, lyrical music, gentle music.
I like light classical music, piano sonatas, even film scores.
I don’t always know the name of the musical piece, or the composer, one of my worst skills is answering music quiz questions. But it doesn’t matter what it is as long as it gives me a feeing of gentle calmness.
Singing with a choir has the same effect. Especially when we are practicing and not performing. I hear the other parts, soprano and alto, and try and meld my voice in with the others. It gives me a real sense of peace and quiet. Gentle Maori lullabies effect me, and sweet folk aires from ancient history. They are all really meditations. That and the breathing required to do it help make me feel at peace.
Gratitudes
What are 5 everyday things that bring you happiness?
Five things that are everyday things?
1. Washing up liquid. Not used to the excess, enough to clean plates and cutlery without polluting the waterways. You can buy ones that are ecologically acceptable. It makes me happy that I can have clean plates.
2. Clean water, to drink, for washing and for bathing. I so lucky to live in a country that mostly has this, although the infrastructure is aging and even here there are some droughts and water shortages.
3. Are Cats everyday objects? I have to say they give me great pleasure and happiness. I’m not saying they are perfect, they can be mad, silly, crafty, cheeky. And they are pretty ubiquitous.
4. Electric light. I wish more people could have this, to be able to see at night without using smoky candles or oil lamps. I hope more communities can get solar power. It’s been shown that school children do better when they can see to do their homework. And maybe more solar power for other necessities.
5. Toilets, it’s a little bit delicate to talk about, but we are again lucky to have them here. They help reduce illnesses and ideally people could be given them. I think you can twin with communities through charity to raise funds to build them in poorer societies. I don’t know the details unfortunately.
101 days of gratitude
I keep drawing and writing
Thinking of good not bad
Calms me down and settles me
Changes thoughts from sad.
Every day three things
Grateful for help from hubby
Happy traffic lights stayed green
That I only have a cold not covid
That you can be happy again.
So 101 days of gratitudes
Not room 101 and gloom
I’ll keep this diary of positives
To balance bad and good.
Singing!
I went to sing with Loud Mouth Women tonight. It felt like I’d never been away. Numbers of attendees were down. I think a lot of people have got the cold that is going round. I’m glad I went. We are starting to learn Christmas songs that we will sing at a small performance in a few weeks. Old songs just come back into my head. You don’t know how they go, and then suddenly the music and words pop into your head! We sang a combination song of English, Hindi, French, Hebrew and Latin tonight! It was 2019 when I last sang it but I still sort of remember it. I was listening to a science programme on the radio on the way home and it said that people can still recall the languages they learnt at school even if decades have passed. It’s because those memories are in a stable area of the brain. It was on a show called All In The Mind on BBC radio 4. It might be on BBC Sounds.
Mallaband-Brown 