52 Ways to Shift Your Focus: Small Bits of Happiness

Shift #37: Small Bits of Happiness

Have you noticed the explosion of books, articles, and blogs devoted to figuring out what makes us happy? Of course you have; it's impossible to miss.

With all the exposure the pursuit of happiness gets, have we forgotten what we already have in our lives that makes us happy?

That's what I'm thinking about today. The list of things that make me happy. The old idea of counting my blessings. Why? Because this list of what makes me happy can go on the bulletin board in front of my computer, where it's impossible to miss - just like the aforementioned books, articles, and blogs that flood the marketplace. Except this is MY list. Do I really need someone else to tell me what makes me happy? I think not.

What my list does is remind me, every time I get a rejection for my work, that there's plenty to make me happy. And to just keep moving into the next project.

So, in the spirit of sharing that blogs inspire, here's my list. The things that make most people happy - family, friends, good health, a decent job - are the big no-brainers in the happiness race, so they're not on this list. My list focuses on the details that are just for me.

Details. There's a reason I work in poetry.

The Incomplete List of Small Things That Make Me Happy (in no particular order):

1. a new blank journal
2. taking close-up garden photos
3. old vine zinfandel
4. a no-particular-reason kiss from my husband
5. my daughter's laugh
6. picking up kids from school
7. Christmas cards
8. Sunday supper at home
9. my son's paintings
10. popcorn with butter

What would you put on your list today? Write it.


SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Raygun Chronicles: Space Opera For a New Age

As part of the Every Day Publishing organization, I'd like to share some news about a new Kickstarter Project for the Raygun Revival anthology. Please check it out and consider supporting this fantastic project.

Raygun Chronicles: Space Opera For a New Age combines the best stories from the 6 year run of Ray Gun Revival ezine with new stories from some of the top writers in science fiction today. 23 stories from writers including Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Dean Wesley Smith, A.C. Crispin, Mike Resnick, Seanan McGuire, Allen Steele, Brenda Cooper, Robin Wayne Bailey and Sarah A. Hoyt--all contemporary yet capturing the classic golden age feel of space opera in the past.

Edited by anthologist Bryan Thomas Schmidt with artwork by Illustrator’s Of The Future Winner Paul Pedersen, this unforgettable collection will be available in limited hardback, trade paperback and ebook editions. The purpose of this Kickstarter is to fund pro-rate payments to the editor and writers as well as partial production costs for the anthology.

Every Day Publishing is a small Canadian Press but we are paying professional rates for this anthology.

Approx. 95000 words
Publication Date: November 2013
Publisher: Every Day Publishing

Author List:
Mike Resnick, A.C. Crispin, Dean Wesley Smith, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Sarah A. Hoyt, Robin Wayne Bailey, Brenda Cooper, Allen Steele, Seanan McGuire, Peter J. Wacks, Keanan Brand, Milo James Fowler, Michael S. Roberts, Michael Merriam, T.M. Hunter, Robert Mancebo, Alice M. Roelke, Lou Antonelli, Paula R. Stiles, Jenny Schwartz, A.M. Stickel, Shaun Farrell, Jennifer Campbell-Hicks