Well, it’s finally here. My year of happiness is over. And when I look back (I just reread all 366 leap year posts), most of the things that made me happy were small and ordinary, which is an important lesson to keep in mind. Especially since I know that during this past year, there were all sorts of unhappy times that were only slightly touched on in these posts. There was lots of violence and death internationally. Matt got sick. I got sick—oh man did I get sick. I think I spent more time sick than well between Election Day and January 1. Matt started working and living during the week in a different city. We had a very contentious election season, and we ended up with a president I didn’t want, a very divided country, and that resulted in some of my fellow Americans doing very stupid, very violent things. Two of my family members died (of natural causes, and not entirely unexpectedly). But this blog focuses on the sunshine, and the dogs, and the food, and the marriage, and the friendships, and all the other little things that bring some silver linings to those dark clouds. And I’m going to try to hold on to that. I’m not going to continue this blog—it’s actually been really hard to think of something that made me happy every day—but I want to continue to try to remember to notice those happy things, because every day has them, even if they’re small. Today has been a very low-key birthday. But I am happy I got to sleep in, happy I got to have some wonderful treats from Sub Rosa this morning, happy that Matt managed to come home very late last night/early this morning, happy that no one died in the inaugural protesting, happy that I’ve watched a bunch of episodes of a show I like, happy that we’ve spent the day hanging out in front of the fire with the dogs, happy that we’re going to go to Phoenix Garden for dinner and Shyndigz for dessert, happy that our long-awaited table is being delivered tomorrow, and happy that we’re healthy, and together, and for now, in RVA.
I’m going to keep striving to find that happiness, and I hope that I’ve inspired some others to do that, too. Even if we can’t make the world a better place, it will at least feel like it’s a little better if we can see that silver through the dark clouds.
Over and out.
