It makes me happy that. . . .

I noticed my kids say this a lot.  I’ve been traveling a lot, so I have seen little of them over the past six weeks or so, but we try to make up for it with a lot of one on one time.  I took one out to dinner Friday, and the other to an arts fair Saturday.  I think with two kids it’s important to give each one focused attention.  Both of them will tell me things I don’t think they would if their sibling were present.

But I noticed both of them said this multiple times.  Balloons make me happy.  This candle makes me happy.  This song makes me happy.

I honestly don’t know if I taught them this or not.  Despite all my problems, many things–simple things, usually–make me happy, and I suppose I’ve commented on it.  Interesting cloud formations make happy.  Pretty sunsets make me happy.  Little kids playing makes me happy.  Puppies make me happy.  Beautiful fall days.

This is a good phrase.  It’s one step on from “I’m grateful for”–which is still a great phrase–but I think for most of us happiness is one of the primary emotions we are searching for (love and engagement being perhaps the two others), and it is a useful practice to consciously acknowledge it whenever it pops up, because pop up it does.  You can’t plan it.  You can’t force it.

And I think the more you acknowledge it, the more places it can and will appear.  It pops through the cracks you allow, until it is a more or less open window, and the sun is coming through.