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Simple Pleasures

As I get older, simple things give me pleasure.  Reading about niece Karen taking a walk or something funny one of the kids did, hearing my daughter laugh, knowing my younger son is cooking a family easter dinner to having a chat about "nothing in particular" with my older son.  Watching a good movie ("The King's Speech") on a quiet Saturday afternoon.  I could make a whole list.

I remember the days when it seemed to take a lot to entertain me.  I didn't want to stay home, that was too boring.  I needed to go where the action was.

Now, I thrive having quiet time, I enjoy a mesmerizing book in my hand, surfing through FaceBook, or researching "new stuff" via the internet. I can't wait for good weather so I can sit on the deck and read or work.

Now, for another simple pleasure.  I am headed to the basement family room @ 2:27AM, wearing my cozy flannel pj's.  I will put a favorite movie into the DVD player and fall asleep before 3AM.

Simply thankful...

Today I am thankful to hear my daughter laugh. Recently I had not heard it, so in my world that was the best sound I heard today.

I am thankful I see May coming up on the calendar, because historically, May brings flowers (and not snow).

I am grateful I am going to Seattle in a couple weeks to be able to see Bruce's parents (they are in their 90's) and we pray his mom & dad are "ok" for a while longer.

I am thankful I have this wonderful, flexible job with multiple clients that keeps me learning. No issue with alzheimers for me, as long as my brain synapses keep merrily firing away.

I am grateful to be working with a local non-profit: the museums in Perham. Doing that helps balance my life. I hope I make a positive difference while on the Board and involved.

I thoroughly enjoyed my Uncle Stanley (from Idaho) and his friend Ruth's (from West Virgina) visit the last few days. They are smart, funny and articulate. We had a great time and laughed a lot.

Finally, today, I am grateful for Bruce's bellowing laugh...I always know where he is in a crowd!

Today was a good day...

Today was a good day. I received a call telling me I was receiving a merit raise (I think I will put it all in 401K), Also that is prorated back to last July (9 months), so I assume my next check will have a little extra.

Then I got another call telling me I am getting a Sprint Aircard for my laptop with unlimited time. Now, I know the Sprint map shows no coverage up at mom & dad's but my phone works fine. I pray the Sprint aircard works up there. If it does, I can go up there for a visit more often & work at the same time. Not being "wired" has prevented me from visiting just anytime.

Later, I read niece Karen's blog about walking in springtime and listening to and seeing nature...it was so delightful I cannot wait to pull my walking shoes on and head on out myself. http://crabtree8576.blogspot.com/2011/04/country-walks.html

I had to go to the lab for some tests this morning (part of annual physical) and saw a (covey) of wild turkeys on the way. If you can ever catch them doing the courtship/mating dance, it is an incredible sight! The male prances around the female, his feathers flounced, he preens, dances and parades. We saw one doing this in the middle of Hwy 35 outside of Dent a couple years ago. Wish I had a video camera at the time.

The day ended with another good call. Uncle Stanley from Idaho is headed this direction and should be here Saturday or Sunday. Some family members are coming along. That means I better call Ghost Runners for a house cleaner!

Goodnight, dear readers.

A Meaningful Life/What makes life worth living?

When I googled, "What makes live worth living", I received 6,120,000 hits. I thought I would check out a few to see what they said. Some talked about having a higher purpose, some religion, some, perhaps thinking they were being funny, stated "the answer is blowing in the wind." I believe the answer is not that complex. A couple of the sites hit the nail on the head.

I believe we become dissatisfied with life when we do not achieve or are not participating in the activities listed below - Paul Thagard a writter, and Dustin Wax, a blogger, have similar views.

According to Paul Thagard in Psychology Today*, happiness is usually the result of having a meaningful life. While there have beeen many theories, love, work, and play seem to be the keys to happiness. Paul Thagard argues that these three activities make life worth living over "nothing, religion and happiness. "

Love includes friendships and family relationships as well as romantic ones. Work includes diverse productive activities such as community volunteering in addition to wage slavery. Play includes all forms of entertainment such as reading and watching movies, not just games. Surveys and other psychological studies indicate that love, work, and play do indeed enable people to have lives they value. Neuroscience provides a deeper understanding of how brain processes generate needs for relatedness, autonomy, and competence that can be satisfied by the successful pursuit of love, work, and play. Such satisfaction yields happiness, but even the pursuit is enough to give life meaning.

A well written blog** by Dustin Wax states "what makes life worth living" this way:

...Instead, I think we need to address the question with our own actions, the things we do that make life worth living. Verbs, not nouns. When I think of how I would answer the question, the following behaviors come to mind:

• Creating: Writing, drawing, painting (though I’m not good at it), playing music (though I’m not especially good at that, either). For others, it might be inventing something, building a business, coming up with a clever marketing campaign, forming a non-profit.


• Relating: It’s not “family” that makes life worth living, I think, but the relationships we create with members of our family, and the way we maintain and build those relationships. Same goes for friends, lovers, business partners, students, and everyone else.


• Helping: Being able to lend a hand to people in need – however drastic or trivial that need may be – strikes me as an important part of life.


• Realizing: Making, working towards, and achieving goals, no matter what those goals are.


• Playing: Maybe this is a kind of “relating”, but then, play can be a solo affair as well. Letting go of restraints, imagining new possibilities, testing yourself against others or against yourself, finding humor and joy.


• Growing: Learning new things, improving my knowledge and ability in the things I’ve already learned.

Those seem like more satisfying answers to me – they strike deeper into what it is I want for myself, what makes it worthwhile to get up in the morning.

I don't think one needs to research much further, but the next step is to look into one's life. Are you doing the things above? If yes, you are probably pretty happy with your life. If not, you may be feeling dissatisfied or worse. Do you need to be ecstatic every moment? No, because then you would not be learning, overcoming challenges and realizing goals.

I do find the happiness and satisfaction factor are higher the older you get. A recent study confirms that (don't have a cite, but I heard it on MPR last week). I notice younger people have the drama factor that can prevent them from realizing a meaningful life earlier on. What a waste. I wish we could skip that age that is so filled with angst and despair, seizures of joy and exhileration. It seems to me many younger people are manic-depressives, and "just being" totally consumes them. I am afraid I was one of them once, narcissistic, searching for meaning and hoping someone else would give it to me...when only I could do so.

Well, I will just sign off by saying that angst and lack of meaning is only a temporary phase, if you are in it. Perhaps, if you are one of those people, you will read the above and it will make sense.

Or, maybe not. Yet.

* http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/hot-thought/201002/what-makes-life-worth-living

** http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/what-makes-life-worth-living.html#