If You've Happy And You Know It

According to the Secret Society of Happy People, August is Happiness Happens Month, and today (August 8th) is Happiness Happens Day.

Founded in 1998, the Society's mission is to help people recognize and talk about happiness. It encourages the expression of happiness and discourages parade-rainers, people who don’t want to hear happy news.

How does one celebrate Happiness Happens Day? The Society recommends...

celebrating the day by wearing your SILVER shades, donating your SILVER coins-pay someone's toll, bus or subway fare, buy a soda, or take up a donation for your favorite charity, or passing out SILVER kisses. Why SILVER? Because not-so-secretly happy people have a way of finding the SILVER lining in even the darkest clouds.

I know that happiness doesn't just happen.; you have to work at it. Abraham Lincoln said, "Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be", so today I tried to find the silver lining in the inconsequential things that happened as I went through the day:

• It was hot today, with a heat index pushing 100°.  However, the tomatoes love this time of year. I picked three full-sized and a dozen cherry fruits, and noticed there'll be some more ripe tomorrow.

• Hot weather also keeps the squirrels away from the bird feeder, so there's actually food there for the birds. 

• A sinus headache had me sitting on the couch doing nothing in the middle of the day.  Instead of being frustrated about it, though, I took the opportunity to close my eyes and listen to the soothing noise of the cicadas outside.    

• Twenty minutes of  work in the back yard yielded five mosquito bites, but also some nice-looking, weed-free beds.

• We took a walk after dinner, and my clothes were completely soaked by the time we finished.  However, it was late enough in the day that I didn't have to worry about sun exposure. And I don't get mosquito bites when I'm walking. And I got to walk through a sprinkler along the way.