In which I unveil the Secrets to Happiness

Here’s what’s working for us right now in the Finding Joy department:

* Say Thank You. Feeling grateful is one quarter-step behind feeling happy. Every time.

* Eat together. Good food. Lots of it. Including lemon desserts. As often as possible.

* Read out loud. Something funny. (Plug for Cuthbert Soup’s excellent sequel, “Another Whole Nother Story.”)

* Make your bed first thing in the morning. Best two minutes spent.

* Sleep in, but just a little. It’s amazing how fun it is to sleep till seven, and then feel like I still have a long, wonderful day to spend however I want. Kids, too. Except maybe seven is too early for a couple of them. It IS Spring Break, after all.

* Walk in the sunshine. Natural vitamin D. And all those other bonuses.

* Watch “Tangled.”

* Listen to happy-making music. Sing along as motivation strikes you.

* Make some goals, then achieve them. Small ones, medium ones, and big ones.

* Know the difference between “goals” and “dreams” – Goals are dependent on you. Things you can accomplish, steps you can take. Really, independent of anyone else. (Write five hundred words, or two thousand. Earn a 4.0 GPA. Walk a mile. Bake a pie.) Dreams, on the other hand, are more about what happens to you: publication, winning an award, getting chosen from your audition, making Academic All State – they’re dreams, and they’re good too. Unless your dream is weird, and you’re trying to talk to that friend from High School that you haven’t seen in over twenty years and she keeps swimming away from you. And for some reason, her hair is green. Spinach green. That’s less good.

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Do you have secrets to share?