Happiness Is …. (another) collective list

This Happiness List was created on the evening of April 19, at the very end of a workshop held at Buffalo Street Books. We spent most of our time writing poems and prose, using the Paint Chip Poetry Game as our inspiration. But then, in the last five minutes, we shared our happiness with one another.


Happiness is the scent of garlic as it sautées . . . mingling with rosemary, cherry tomatoes, and salt

Happiness is finding that sock that got lost in the wash last week

Happiness is having just enough coffee beans to make a pot of coffee on Sunday morning

Happiness is remembering how violets used to smell and then discovering them growing in my garden

Happiness is when my mosquito bites stop itching

Happiness is when the buds lengthen and I know the tree I planted for her lived through its first winter

Happiness is a day with a doable but challenging project

Happiness is taking pleasure in my family – my daughter, son, grandson — and feeling grateful for all that I have

Happiness is a life full of cats

Happiness is having good friends, who get me

Happiness is the set of wild dreams that dance along my peripheral vision in the waking light

Happiness is looking at a friend and knowing that they already see what I feel

Happiness is a smile passed from one soul to another

Happiness is the feeling in the air on a warm summer’s day

Happiness is the glow in your eyes when you think no one is watching

Happiness is wandering, exploring, being upside down, having my worldview changed

Happiness is panna cotta

Happiness is all those Amish Romance Novels, read and forgotten

Happiness is brown paper packages tied up in string

Happiness is bourbon

Happiness is all the little ladybug “tents” in my apartment: learning how incredibly delicate and intricate they are, and how to pick them up and how to move them

Happiness is fresh coffee, a soft blanket, and a close friend

Happiness is driving in the rain thinking of baptism

Happiness is waking up with something new to try

Happiness is seeing the eyes of the person you love soften, as they heal

Happiness is my child, breathing, being

Happiness is reading on the porch

Happiness is the sound of green leaves rustling in a warm breeze

Happiness is finding both of my gloves in the pocket when I need them

Happiness is going to the mall to see a live broadcast of a Met opera

Happiness is having a bird study me with great concentration and curiosity

Happiness is blundering into a writing group and finding my place among the others

Happiness is seeing the very book I most want to read now, right there on a bookstore shelf, and hooray, it’s already available in paperback

Happiness is cuddling with a cat guru

Happiness is smiling because it’s good to be alive

Happiness is using a pen until all the ink is gone


 
Thank you to all these wonderful contributors:

Alex
Ashley
Barb
David
Janis
Jim
Kietra
Krishna
Lisa
Margaret
Marty
Nancy
Rob
Sandy
Susan I
Susan K
Susie
Zee