Lasting Happiness

“President Gordon B. Hinckley believed in the healing power of service. After the death of his wife, he provided a great example to the Church in the way he immersed himself in work and in serving others. It is told that President Hinckley remarked to one woman who had recently lost her husband, ‘Work will cure your grief. Serve others.’

“Those are profound words. As we lose ourselves in the service of others, we discover our own lives and our own happiness.

“In today’s world of pop psychology, junk TV, and feel-good self-help manuals, this advice may seem counterintuitive. We are sometimes told that the answer to our ills is to look inward, to indulge ourselves, to spend first and pay later, and to satisfy our own desires even at the expense of those around us. While there are times when it is prudent to look first to our own needs, in the long run it doesn’t lead to lasting happiness.”

Dieter F. Uchtdor

Nearly, Nearly…

Nearly a pink blossom

Nearly a graduate

Nearly a cozy fire

Nearly a peach

Nearly Summer

Nearly at the end

Nearly one year out

Nearly jam

Nearly fifty-one years old

Nearly perfect

Perfect

Happy Thoughts

peterpan“Think of a Wonderful Thought…”

Did you happen to notice?

To the right of this post–way up at the top–there is a box that says “A Million Things To Be Happy About.” That was the place where you could click and read our huge list of things that make us happy. But not just us…you guys as well. We’ve tried very hard to add the happy comments to our list each time someone has left them.

Well, now it’s changed a bit. We have moved the “List” to a tab above. Look up, you’ll see it.” But the best part is that we’ve added your happy thoughts to the scrolling list at the top right side of this page. Look to the right…see it? Each quote will appear for about 8 seconds before randomly displaying another. Oh, I’ve added four or five of my own–if they were particularly brilliant, but for the most part, they are all yours. Don’t worry–only the first names will be posted.

If you’d like to be part of our scrolling happy list–all you have to do is add what makes you happy to this post—now, and any other time we are collecting. We’ll add your thoughts to the display and to the main “List.” Our goal is to inspire others to see the joy and beauty that is there, around them, all the time–if they will just look.

After all…happiness is a choice.

What do you say? Right this minute—what is making you happy?

Please tell us…we’d love to share!

Baby Dolls

So we have this very sweet, very happy, very rubbery baby dolly at our house.

Believe it or not, she smiles allll the time and she’s even starting to laugh–a lot.

The funny thing is–I can’t really prove it, because whenever I point the camera at her…

…she stops whatever she’s doing–laughing, and smiling included—

and stares into the lens.

She’s fascinated by it.

Which makes it hard to show you what an incredible smile she has…unless…

we can point and snap the shot really fast…

before she goes back into the “zone.”

I think I love this baby’s smile so much because it’s one I’m very familiar with.

Pretty sure her mama had it first.