Day Sixteen – What Makes Me Happy?

Dictionary.com tells us that happy  [ hap-ee ] is an adjective meaning delighted, pleased, or glad, as over a particular thing; or characterized by or indicative of pleasure, contentment, or joy.

Simple, right?

I’ll tell you what isn’t simple.  This thirty-day writing challenge.  I thought as the days went by it would get easier.  Boy was I wrong.  While I was sipping my morning cup of cardamom coffee before my classes started, I was not sure where or how to start today’s topic.  I first returned to a blog I wrote in January 2018, “Wendy and the Search for Happiness”.  I wrote it because I had just watched the movie, “Hector and the Search for Happiness”, not because I was searching for happiness myself.  Honestly, I am pretty happy most of the time.  I considered comparing Hector’s list, The Lessons on Happiness, with my life, but I kinda, sorta did that in the blog.  Then I thought about creating my own “lessons”, but that was way too much thinking.  Since I was about to teach an English class, I looked up “Happy” Idioms.  My students love idioms; Happy Camper, Happy as a Pig in Mud, Happy Go Lucky, and Happy as a Lark are a few, but nothing struck me.  So I decided to jot down a list of things that make me happy.

Two things immediately came to mind.  It was a drizzly morning, and I was enjoying my coffee.  Not only does the smell of coffee (especially this cardamom coffee) make me happy, but so does sipping it in the morning while it is raining.

Having lots of time to read makes me happy.

Auguste Escoffier said, “Good food is the foundation of genuine happiness.”   Noodles make me happy.  They can be lamian, rice, ramen, udon, or just plain spaghetti.

Snail-mail makes me happy.  I wrote this list while I was sipping my joe and when I went out this grey afternoon, I had a sunny yellow envelope in my mailbox from Warren, Ohio.  It also may have made it in world record time…a mere 9 days across the pond.  Texts, emails, and video chats are great, but it always brings a smile to get a surprise card or letter in the mailbox.

Friday nights make me happy.  A shared flat wasn’t my full-time plan.  I moved into my current flat thinking I would eventually move to a studio…then Valeria happened followed by Zaka and Tarlan.  I came to love my shared flat and the cast of characters that have come and gone.  Soon, Friday nights found me making pizzas, drinking wine or martinis, and sharing the evening with a group of 20-somethings playing card games, listening to Frank, Elvis, and the Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack, dancing, laughing, and general craziness.

Creating art, whether in my journals, making my own stationery, doodling, adult coloring books, or on random pieces of paper, makes me happy.

I introduced my flatmates to pickle pizza.  I also make random desserts with French pastry.  It made me very happy when the guys asked me to teach them how to make pizza and pastry.  And, yes, sometimes they even get busy in the kitchen.

An icy cold, slightly dirty Beefeater martini with a bleu cheese stuffed olive makes me happy.

Somewhere along the way, you may have picked up on the fact that I love Paris.  Over the years, I have met friends and family in La Ville Lumiere.  It makes me happy to share and enjoy the city I love with them.  To be honest, it’s not just Paris.  I have had friends and family join me in China, South Korea, Bali, Morocco, and Poland.  It makes me happy to show them a little about the places I have considered either home or a favorite place.

Sleep…sleeping makes me happy!  I’m good at it too.

I have a severe case of Wanderlust.  Planning my next trip makes me happy.

Bottom line….my life makes me happy!