The End is Near, Be Happy!

Posted on March 30, 2019 by Michael Kane

The End is Near, Be Happy!

Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me. ~ Carol Burnett

The End is Near

The end is near, the end of 2017 that is. All endings bring new beginnings. That is the one thing I like about this time of year. It is an excellent time to take stock of where your life is, get a little perspective and plan for what’s coming. Of course it is also important to celebrate your successes and lessons from the previous year, we’ve all had both.

Let’s Party!

So for me over the last year there were absolutely successes. I published my first book, Appalachian Trail Happiness. Not only was it a short-term goal related to my time off but it had been on my bucket list for a very long time. Along the lines of my goals on this front I also did my first keynote for a statewide conference this year and am currently in talks to do another in March. I’ve come really far in rehabbing my knee this year, working out 5 nights a week most weeks this year and recently have upped it to six. I did a really great hike to Havasupai Falls, it was a good test of my knee with a full pack and my knee performed really well.

Havasupai Falls

I moved, both a lesson and a success, I relearned how little space I need and in turn the move is saving me over $500 a month. This has also motivated me to work on minimizing my possessions, over the last year I’ve liberated myself from about 25% of my possessions and I’m hoping this year to liberate at least 25% more. When I head out for my next adventure I’m really hoping to have very little in storage. One of my learning experiences this year has been that I realize I’m way more attached to the art I own than anything else.

My favorite DOTD painting by my favorite artist Heather Calderon

I’ve learned a massive lesson this year, or more honestly I’ve finally admitted and accepted something I’ve known for a long time. But isn’t that the way it always is, it has been that way for me. I learn, I deny and it’s only when I finally come to acceptance that I truly move forward. The deeper I’m invested in my belief, the longer and the harder the denial. This one has been a doozy! But I’ve arrived, the lesson is an old one, don’t invest significantly more in another person than they are willing to invest in you. There’s a great quote that sums it up and is my big lesson for 2017.

My 2017 lesson

So my friends, take some time at this point in the year to take stock, evaluate and plan for what’s next and have a happy day my friends. ~ Rev Kane

Posted in personal happiness | Tagged art, be happy, change, happiness, let's party, life lessons, minimalism, quote, the end is near | Leave a comment

How to be Happy at Work

Posted on March 29, 2019 by Michael Kane

How to be Happy on a Hard Workday

Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

So the other day at the office I was having one of those days. You know, the kind of day where you finally get to your morning to do list at about 4:30 in the afternoon. The day starts innocently enough, then fire after fire erupts that you have to put out. You had a project to work on, but 2 others suddenly take precedence. Of course there is data/information that you need, if only that person would just email you back you could actually get something done. By the third email, well you feel like this.

And of course it’s Monday.

So how do you keep it together, retain some semblance of your happiness on a day like this, you go back to the basics. First, remember to breathe, literally, take some breaks throughout the day for a couple of minutes to just do some deep breathing. It will calm you down, clear your head and loosen up those shoulders for a couple of minutes.

Remember to move, find ways to get up out of your chair and walk around. We all know that sitting down all day is killing us. But on a tense and stressful day it’s doing it a little bit faster, we have to work, our jobs are in an office but we’re not chained to the chairs. So move, get your circulation flowing, instead of calling the office 50 feet away, take a quick walk and have a conversation. In addition to the benefits of walking, some face to face human contact will do you good.

Take a break, not just to do some deep breathing, or walk down the hall but an actual break. Too many of us hunker down, eat at our desk and work like prisoners in a cell. Even if it’s only for 15 or 20 minutes, get out of the office, go for a walk or a drive. Go sit on a bench and stare at clouds. Taking a break has even bigger benefits long-term for both you and your employer.

Finally, find a way to laugh, a favorite video clip or some reading material to get you to crack a mile. Getting back to basics can actually help you have a happier day my friends ~ Rev Kane

Accidental Happiness: Chinese Lantern Festival

Posted on March 28, 2019 by Michael Kane

Accidental Happiness: Chinese Lantern Festival

The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls ~ Pablo Picasso

Off on a business trip and stopped in Spokane, WA to see a friend and it turns out will get to see two, so an auspicious day to start with. One of my friends says to me you should go check out the Chinese Lantern Festival down on the river after dark. She made a great call on that one and below are a set of pictures that show just how right she was. The festival was beautiful and a little bizarre, the river walk was quite nice.

But what the heck does this have to do with living a happier life? The answer is a very simple little suggestion on how to be happier and that is to be open. For a second after my friends suggestion I was heading towards blowing it off, we get these types of suggestions all of the time. But tonight, I decided to say yes, to be open to trying something out. Sure, it’s not like I climbed a mountain or anything but the concept is the same. Be open, be available, be willing to say yes when you might ordinarily say no, it might lead to something wonderful, like a Chinese Lantern Festival. Enjoy the photos and have a happy day my friends. ~ Rev Kane

Posted in Random Happiness | Tagged china, happiness, happy, lantern festival, photography, pics, spokane, travel | Leave a comment

Happiness is Blue Poop

Posted on March 27, 2019 by Michael Kane

Happiness is Blue Poop

Warning the next image you see will be poop, spoiler, it’s kind of blue-green.

Wow, recently my life has changed in oh so many ways! As I have chronicled here recently I cut short an extended road trip to come back to NY to help out family as my mother has been very ill. Up until that point I was a rubber tramping, gypsy hiker training for an Appalachian Trail thru-hike.

Now, well, now I’m basically a home health aide living in my sisters back room and having to take photos of poop. You see, my little niece Rooney is potty training and she was successful this evening, you’ll see her little trophy below. However Uncle Mike needed to pee, but daddy wasn’t home yet and the little trophy couldn’t be disturbed. Unfortunately, my bladder was going to explode and it’s really, really cold outside, so I needed a plan. Fortunately, cell phones have cameras so I was able to photo and text the image to her dad and with her approval flush her little trophy away. Here’s the accomplishment, I thumbnailed it, but for whatever reason you feel you need to see it in all of it’s glory, you know potty training nostalgia, whatever, just click on the picture for the full-size and glorious technicolor image.

Yes, I said technicolor, it’s blue or blue-green or some other unnatural color for a bowl movement, who poops blue? I asked her if she was an alien, she said yes, I’m going with that.

May you have a healthy bowel movement and a happy day my friends ~ Rev Kane

Posted in Random Happiness | Tagged appalachian trail, family, gypsy, happiness, hiking, poop, potty training | 5 Comments

Happiness is Poetry: Chris Cunningham

Posted on March 26, 2019 by Michael Kane

Happiness is Poetry: Chris Cunningham

Tonight another recommendation from our friend Hosho McCreesh, tonight we feather Chris Cunningham – read, enjoy, have a happy day my friends ~ Rev Kane

To Clark Kent

When did you know you hated him?
Was it the cape? the tight red undies?
the way that Lois said your name

or the smell of urine and cigarettes
in phone booths? Was it he who insisted
on glasses and hair oil? he who suggested

the awkward bumble of your gait,
the pratfalls, the befuddled, stumbling
stutter? Of course, the newspaper bit

was his idea: he wanted you
to hear about him, read about
him, see his picture. Although

he must have known you’d never write
a big story. How could you? He—
the man that you could never meet—

would always be the only story.
When did you suspect that he
preferred it that way? Still, he worries,

nervous that someone will notice
your mutual exclusivity,
your perfect anti-coincidence,

coaches you on explanations
inane and implausible,
and yet you know these lame evasions

are unnecessary—know
why no one ever puts the zero
and one together, because you know

no one ever notices
that you’re not there. At night, while he’s
out flying through Metropolis,

you lie in bed and try to convince
yourself of the invisible
heroism of your silence,

retelling to the darkness all
the secret things you can’t have done.
And when did you begin to tell

this new kind of secret? After he
has gone to sleep, you whisper it
into your pillow, quietly,

so soft your lips don’t move, your thought
dissolving just before it takes
the shape of words. But there, shut tight

in the lead-lined safety of your soul,
the one he doesn’t know you have,
you tell the dark, ironic tale

of how the man of stainless steel,
the speeding-bullet, leaping-buildings
man will finally fulfill

the fate his parents saved him from,
fulfill the end you dream for him.

***************************************

Still Life

A pear, yellow-skinned,
bruised, sits in a shallow pool
of its own syrup,

its blunt-ends flattening,
slowly splattering in bone
china (a pattern

of pallid purple
lilacs blooms unendingly
around an edge kissed

with gold), resting, if
not yet at rest, at the end
of a long, winding

fall from a tree whose
white blossoms once shuddered and
danced in the cold rain.

*******************************************

These Absinthe Drinker

Their knees are touching, but he’s across
the room with his friend the barkeep.
He’s flirting with the waitress.

He’s at home asleep, on the street,
under a woman, he’s in a different bar,
or the same one the next night,

or the night before. We don’t know
where he is. Their knees are touching.
He’s her brother and their mother has died.

He’s her lover, and he’s leaving her.
He’s her husband, their baby has died.
He’s the man sitting next to her,

whose knee her knee is touching,
and she doesn’t know he’s there.

II.

Her hands trail off into wispy gestures
of brushstroke, as if she doesn’t exist
at the ends of herself, less real

than the froth of bows on her shoes
or the yellow absinthe in the goblet
before her, its lips rimmed with light.

Dark bangs hang down
to thick eyelids, hanging heavy
over heavy eyes gazing at a spot

on the floor. She’s thinking about
her mother or her brother or the bread
she will buy and eat with cheese

and red wine for dinner. She’s thinking
about the pattern of the tiles on the floor
and the slow blur of her days.

She’s thinking about the darkness
of the city at night and the coarse ricochet
of voices in the street outside

her window when she can’t sleep.
But she’s not thinking about her hands,
which sometimes don’t exist.

III.

Lips, painted and straight, chin
withdrawing into neckflesh. Slouched
with shoulders slack and round,

arms hanging to lose themselves
under the table, the right knee
swung wide, foot tipped on its side.

When they see her in London
and hang her on the walls of the gallery,
she ignores them, looks right past them

at the same spot on the floor,
and they call it absinthe, The Absinthe,
a moral as pretty as the bow

on her hat, filling her empty eyes
with the potable emptiness of wormwood.

IV.

Later, when the artist leaves
with his paper and ink, she looks
down into the cloudy drink sitting

untouched on the table before her,
and she smells anise. And then
she drinks it, sweet and yellow

and sharp, the glass cold
and reassuringly solid in the hand
she discovers at the end of her sleeve.

Happiness is Poetry: Pablo Neruda

Happiness is Poetry: Bukowski

Happiness is Poetry: Peter McWilliams

Posted in Happiness is Poetry | Tagged bukowski, chris cunningham, happiness, happy, hosho mccreesh, neruda, peter mcwilliams, poems, poetry, writing | Leave a comment

What is Social Media Doing to Your Happiness?

Posted on March 25, 2019 by Michael Kane

What is Social Media Doing to Your Happiness?

Your success and happiness lies within you. Resolve to keep happy and your joy and you will shall form and invincible host against difficulties. ~ Helen Keller

Impacts of Social Media

We are all, well most of us, at some level addicted to a form or two of social media. Many of us check our Facebook page more times than we would like to admit each day. The innovation of smartphones, this wonderful device that connects us to nearly the entirety of all knowledge, has also turned into a form of an electronic leash. Smartphones are wonderful, in addition to being a link to the web and all that means, it also has the opportunity to make us more effective and efficient humans. Sitting in waiting rooms, waiting on people, sitting in a taxi or on a train is now time that we can use to conduct business, return correspondence, make appointments, etc… However, many of us utilize this time frivolously, checking on what are friends are doing, reading celebrity gossip, getting sucked into the news cycle. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m all for downtime and relaxation and keeping up on friends and relatives, that’s been a wonderful of benefit of social media. But honestly, that feels like a small part of what we do, myself included.

People are cognizant of their own image and because others are viewing us, most of us make an effort to put our best foot forward on our social media accounts. We get a good feeling when we get likes and comments, so we focus our posts on the cool things in our lives. There is an interesting piece I read recently on the effect of social media and how it can increase envy, comparison, anxiety and depression. I really like this quote from the article.

Through social media we have a continual window into the lives of friends, pseudo-friends, and celebrities. And what we see is not some unvarnished peek into their world but a highly idealized image that they present. We see only the most exciting images from their vacations, the happy faces of their friends, and children, accounts of their continual self-improvement, the fascinating people they are meeting, the great causes and projects they are involved in, the example of success in their endeavors. — Robert Greene, The Laws of Human Nature

The article is a great read and it describes how we naturally compare ourselves to the people we follow on social media. It talks about how this can fuel envy and especially how we often compare ourselves to the posts that we see. Not thinking about the fact that we are only seeing the glossy, photoshopped version of other people’s lives, we compare that to the reality of our own lives, warts and all and we feel bad.

Politics and Social Media

In addition to the envy created by watching others on social media, there is another thing that really impacts our happiness. In an ever polarized political world, social media is the place where we are constantly exposed to political ramblings, arguments, and lots of information that causes us anxiety. Particularly when we get into one-on-one arguments over political issues, our happiness takes a hit. And it’s nearly impossible to avoid all of the political memes, statements and rants that are out there. We’re all guilty of it one way or the other, particularly because posts about happiness and good news, get far less interaction and likes than the political stuff. This tells the algorithms used by the platforms to prioritize those posts more, it’s a vicious cycle that we are complicit in encouraging with our choices.

Our Happiness is under our control

There are very few times when our happiness is not under our control. As I just mentioned, our interactive choices on social media impact what types of posts get prioritized and shown to us. So, the more you like, comment on and share things like the Ministry of Happiness posts, or good news items, the more those things will show in your news feed or on whatever platform you’re using.

Also, controlling your time on social media can help. Even though it’s become a habit for most of us, instead of checking our phones constantly, pick certain times to review Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and others. Or, like some people, you can take the big leap and delete the apps off of your phones and only access social media at set times on your laptop or desktop computer.

Finally, and this will be no surprise to longtime readers, read a book or some poetry, get outside, take a hike, go to the gym and during those times keep your phone off. We need these breaks from social media and especially if you can do that by going outside you’ll have happier days my friends. ~ Rev Kane

Posted in personal happiness | Tagged anxiety, be happy, facebook, happiness, happy, instagram, social media, stress | Leave a comment

Drunk History

Posted on March 24, 2019 by Michael Kane

Drunk History

If you have never seen Drunk History on Comedy Central you have been missing out. The premise is very simple, take comedians, get them drunk, have them tell informative stories about history. Sounds straight forward and boring, it is so far from straight forward and boring, surprising you’ll probably learn a little but I promise you’ll be laughing too hard to notice. Enjoy and have a happy day my friends ~ Rev Kane

Harriett Tubman, Civil War Spy (5:34)

Solving the Los Angeles Water Crisis (6:26)

Bobby Fischer, King of the Chess People (7:45)

A Sound in Space (6:33)

Bass Reeves, Full-on Dances with Wolves (6:41)

Here Are Some Other Posts You Might Enjoy!

Snoop Dogg Narrates

Kids explain Santa & Christmas

Fun Internet Memes

The Onion & The Oatmeal

Funny Kid Pictures

Happiness is Laughter: Funny Signs

Happiness is Star Wars

Amazing Festivals for your Bucket List

Funny Baby Images

Posted in Happiness is Laughter | Tagged comedy, comedy central, drunk, drunk history, funny video, happiness, harriett tubman, history, laughter, los angeles | 1 Comment

On the Road: Cross Country – Flowers and Mountains

Posted on March 22, 2019 by Michael Kane

On the Road: Cross Country – Flowers and Mountains

I like too many things and get all confused and hung-up running from one falling star to another till I drop. This is the night, what it does to you. ~ Jack Kerouac

So today I left Bakersfield and headed across the Mojave and up the Sierra Nevada Mountains to get to a place called Tonapah, NV. I’ll be spending the weekend here before heading to Sacramento as a base of operations while I’m interviewing for a new position. Not much to talk about on the drive today but a lot of pretty sights. First, the flowers are blooming in the Mojave.

And in the mountain

And the mountains were beautiful today.

And finally, my destination, the Clown Hotel in Tonapah.

Posted in 2018 Adventure, Happiness on the Road | Tagged adventure, be happy, california, flowers, happiness, happy, nevada, super bloom, the clown motel, travel | Leave a comment

Happiness, Silence, Gratitude & Looking Back

Posted on March 22, 2019 by Michael Kane

Happiness, Silence, Gratitude & Looking Back

Man is fond of counting his troubles, but he does not count his joys. If he counted them up as he ought to, he would see that every lot has enough happiness provided for it. ~Fyodor Dostoevsky

If you are a regular reader of this blog you know that I spend a lot of my holidays hiking. For my Christmas Day hike this year I went up into the big trees and hiked through the Armstrong Redwood Grove in Northern California. It was a particularly good hike and given the holiday and the fact that trail I was on was pretty steep there were very few people that I encountered for most of the day. I love hiking in redwood forests, the lack of significant understory, the darkness and the dampening of sound makes for a really peaceful environment.

One of the things that made this hike particularly special was the opportunity for some rare natural quiet. Natural quiet being the ability to stop and hear no man-made sound, within the gullies on the hike you could hear nothing at times, not even any birds. It’s amazing how self aware you become when things are that quiet, hiking starts to become more like meditation under those conditions.

On this hike I got thinking about the last year, I really don’t like all of the top 10 lists we’re subjected too at the end of each year, but I do believe the end of the year provides a good anchor point for looking back. Over this last year a lot has happened, of course that is every year, I’ve lost people, some have died and some well I just lost them. I’m grateful for the good things that happened and am excited in a few days to look into my jar of good things from the year.

Recently I’ve met someone and a really interesting part to it is seeing yourself reflected in the eyes of someone who is just learning about you for the first time. Sometimes that view is a little more objective than our own. This got me to thinking on the hike and really looking at how much I’ve accomplished in my life. You see in my mind, I haven’t accomplished that much because there is still so much more I want to do in my life, but this may be what’s twisting my mirror when I look into it. You see once I started enumerating all of the things I have done, I had to be proud of what I’ve done particularly given where I started out. So I took my own advice and smiled and took pride in what I’ve accomplished, the impacts I’ve made and I had a happy day my friends.

So here’s what I want you to do, I want you to take a few minutes and do what I did, enumerate all of the good things you’ve done and be proud of yourself and smile. Be grateful for what you have and have a happy day my friends ~ Rev Kane