Happiness Basics

Posted on March 3, 2025 by Michael Kane

Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful. ~ William Morris

Happiness Basics

The world is a crazy place in the best of times, and we are certainly not in the best of times right now. In many, many ways the world seems to have lost it’s bloody mind. This leads to all of us, who already have very busy and somewhat crazy lives, to be even more crazy. As we experience stress and anxiety in our lives it often takes a toll on our overall happiness.

It’s during these times that I am always reminded of some basic Taoist philosophy about life and happiness. It’s something I’ve talked about before on the blog and something that I have come back to time and time again in my life and it’s always been very helpful. So I thought tonight, with everything that’s happening, it would be a good time for a reminder about this simple philosophy.

Taoist philosophy says that whenever you feel out of sorts you have to make sure that all of the basic necessities of life are being taken care of. It is important that you are eating right, drinking enough water, exercising, sleeping enough and that finally that your environment is safe. When I get out of sorts the two things that fall apart on me the quickest are me eating healthily and getting proper sleep. I have a tendency to fall back on comfort foods, chocolate and cokes. While these make me feel good in the moment, the additional carbs are a problem for me. First, as a diabetic it’s not good for my system, and secondly, when my sugar numbers go up I have to urinate more frequently. Which of course means that I sleep in two hour snippets at best, so I don’t get enough sleep. The one thing I’m always good at is drinking enough water.

The one characteristic that is the most complicated is the idea of a safe environment. This doesn’t just mean safe from physical harm, but it also means safe from mental injury as well. This means if you are in a work or home environment where you don’t feel safe and supported, are under great stress or even threat of physical or emotional attack you can’t be happy, safe or secure. The fact is, that even if everything else is in balance, if you don’t feel safe, you won’t be right. This can be really challenging when the safety of your environment is beyond your control, meaning you can’t leave the situation that’s causing you not to be safe.

So my friends, remember these basics, and even if you’re in a situation you can’t change, if you at least keep the other aspects in balance, you might at least have the emotional and mental reserves to deal with the safety issue while you find a solution. So take care of yourself, get the basics and have a happy day my friends. ~ Rev Kane

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Three Questions, March 2, 2025

Posted on March 3, 2025 by Michael Kane

Three Questions, March 2, 2025

You can find the background to The Three Questions in my recent post about it. I’ll be answering the questions each day for the next year and putting this experience into a book. Here we go!

What was the most beautiful thing I encountered today?

There was a picture that accompanied a description of the basic physics of waves. It was a gorgeous shot of a massive wave catching the sun twinkling off of the edge of the wave, truly beautiful.

What did I learn today?

What I learned today is that there will be both a partial solar and a total lunar eclipse this year and both viewable from North America. And the lunar eclipse, a blood moon will happen on the evening of March 14th.

What made me happy today?

My niece posted pictures on her Instagram account today of her latest basketball game. Made me happy to see her happy and competing, and she looks and reminds me so much of her mother at the same age.

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Three Questions, March 1, 2025

Posted on March 2, 2025 by Michael Kane

It doesn’t even matter if I don’t win a self-gold – after every meet, I have pizza. Pepperoni pizza. ~ Simone Biles

Three Questions, March 1, 2025

You can find the background to The Three Questions in my recent post about it. I’ll be answering the questions each day for the next year and putting this experience into a book. Here we go!

What was the most beautiful thing I encountered today?

Saw some gorgeous flowers on my walk in San Francisco today.

What did I learn today?

Today I learned about fallstreak holes in clouds. They occur when ice crystals form from super cooled rain droplets that fall through altostratus or cirrostratus clouds as the droplets trigger a chain reaction of freezing.

What made me happy today?

I really great slice of pepperoni pizza is the easiest way to make me happy and had a lovely one from Gioia Pizzeria today.

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Three Questions, February 28, 2025

Posted on March 1, 2025 by Michael Kane

We all need to make time for a burger once in a while. ~ Erica Durance

Three Questions, February 28, 2025

You can find the background to The Three Questions in my recent post about it. I’ll be answering the questions each day for the next year and putting this experience into a book. Here we go!

What was the most beautiful thing I encountered today?

When I was out for my walk I saw some lovely flowers that were hanging in a bunch. They were absolutely beautiful.

What did I learn today?

Today I learned the Dude himself, Jeff Bridges will be making an appearance and doing a question and answer session near my house after a screening of The Big Lebowski, it is of course on 4/20, which means I’ll be in the hospital recovering form my open heart surgery. I’m crushed, and for just a minute, I considered moving my surgery date.

What made me happy today?

Preparing for my surgery I need to have my blood sugar in really good shape so I’ve become a bit militant on the sugar front. I allowed myself a burger and small coke for dinner tonight and damn it was good and made me very happy.

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Three Questions, February 27, 2025

Posted on February 28, 2025 by Michael Kane

Cooking is a philosophy, not a recipe. ~ Marco Pierre White

Three Questions, February 27, 2025

You can find the background to The Three Questions in my recent post about it. I’ll be answering the questions each day for the next year and putting this experience into a book. Here we go!

What was the most beautiful thing I encountered today?

A lovely rose on my walk was definitely the most beautiful thing I encountered today.

What did I learn today?

I learned that the longest recorded instance of someone surviving without food or water was a guy in Australia who was put in a jail cell and forgotten for 18 days. Completely amazing, typically 3-5 days is the max without water.

What made me happy today?

For the last couple of days I’ve been jonesing for baked tofu. There’s a dish bean curd country style, essentially baked tofu and vegetables that I really wanted. And today after work I bought all the ingredients, baked up some tofu and was really happy at dinner.

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Three Questions, February 26, 2025

Posted on February 27, 2025 by Michael Kane

Three Questions, February 26, 2025

You can find the background to The Three Questions in my recent post about it. I’ll be answering the questions each day for the next year and putting this experience into a book. Here we go!

What was the most beautiful thing I encountered today?

Today it was the heat, we had a ten degree above average today and it was absolutely gorgeous.

What did I learn today?

Today I learned that a lot of states have filial laws that say if your parents are indigent or can’t afford say nursing home care, you are required as their child to pay for it if you are able.

What made me happy today?

I had a colleague read a letter they had written thanking me for the impact I’ve had on their life. It was very moving and made me happy to have been a positive influence.

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Three Questions, February 25, 2025

Posted on February 26, 2025 by Michael Kane

The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future. ~ Oscar Wilde

Three Questions, February 25, 2025

You can find the background to The Three Questions in my recent post about it. I’ll be answering the questions each day for the next year and putting this experience into a book. Here we go!

What was the most beautiful thing I encountered today?

There were some really amazing flowers on my walk today. And there were these bushes that were full of blue flowers that smelled absolutely amazing.

What did I learn today?

Today I learned about all of the tests that need to happen before my heart surgery and that the criteria for getting out of the hospital will be the ability to comfortably walk at least 200 feet.

What made me happy today?

Actually a lot. First I scheduled the date for my open heart surgery, tax day, April 15th, so I hope my surgeon had a good tax year. I also had a lovely pizza for dinner and finally, I ran into one of my old students today and it was wonderful.

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Three Questions, February 24, 2025

Posted on February 25, 2025 by Michael Kane

Three Questions, February 24, 2025

You can find the background to The Three Questions in my recent post about it. I’ll be answering the questions each day for the next year and putting this experience into a book. Here we go!

What was the most beautiful thing I encountered today?

Saw some really amazing close up shots of birds online today, it’s a really different perspective to see something like a cardinal close up.

What did I learn today?

Today I read about the Athena mission heading to the moon. A really cool unmanned mission that will use a number of different components include the hopper (named after Grace Hopper), a rover and a drill to find and analyze freshwater on the moon.

What made me happy today?

I suffered through three weeks of having my entire schedule disrupted and forcing me to get up early every day and it was incredibly inconvenient. Well today, I got to use the new washer and dryer they installed in my apartment while finally being able to have a work from home day.

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It’s ok to just be happy

Posted on February 24, 2025 by Michael Kane

What happens in Vegas may stay in Vegas, but what happens in New Orleans, goes home with you. ~ Laurell K Hamilton

It’s ok to just be happy

I’m someone who gets the one-time nature of our life and how quickly it goes by, honestly it’s horrifying to me that I’m a senior citizen. And much like when I asked my 80 year-old granny how old she felt in her mind, I’m still a teenager in my head in many ways. As such, I feel the need to make the most of the time I have, to make my life matter and so when I find myself on my couch just watching movies or shows I have a tendency to get angry with myself for wasting time. It is important though to take time to relax, we can’t go and go all of the time, we burn out. And unfortunately my job is extremely stressful and frustrating so there are far too many times when I just need to check-out in order to stay sane. But I have a hard time with not making that time productive in the larger sense.

This past weekend an old friend and I were catching up and we were wondering if this might not be the craziest time to be alive. There certainly is a lot of madness in this world right now. Enough so that I’ve decided to move my surgery up, a combination of the normal high-level of stress, the extra stress of the current madness and lots of uncertainty around my job. Feels wise to take care of my health issues as soon as possible.

So with all of the madness in our lives and in the larger world it can seem like maybe it’s not ok to be happy, to take time for ourselves, to laugh and enjoy life. And while all of these bigger things are certainly urgent, it’s important we maximize the amount of happiness in our limited time here. So as such, we (and that includes me), need to be ok with taking some time just to do things that make us happy.

One of those things for me is cooking. I fell in love with New Orleans the very first time I was there. I have often said it’s the first place that I ever visited where I felt at home the minute I got there. I’m comfortable in New Orleans, even in the insane summer heat and the rainy winter days at Mardi Gras parades. I also love the food there. At Cochon, their rabbit and dumplings may be the best thing I’ve ever eaten, eating that dish there is a blissful experience for me.

I also love to cook and fusing my love for New Orleans and my love for cooking, one of the things I do is make homemade gumbo. It’s been a learning experience making a roux from scratch is more art than science. I’ve gotten pretty good at making a decent roux and while I don’t eat onions I sub scallions into the mix. Starting with the trinity (onions, peppers and garlic) and a good roux, dumping in andouille sausage, chicken, a little celery and seasoning and then letting it cook is a wonderful experience. I love the process of making the roux, of chopping, cutting and the smell of it all simmering on the stove. I’ve gotten pretty skilled at making a tasty gumbo and it’s almost perfect, what’s missing is good okra. I just can’t find good okra in a grocery store where I live in California. So it’s damn good but I want call it New Orleans quality without the okra.

Taking the time to make a gumbo from scratch definitely puts me in my happy place and the best part, then is that I get to eat it, for a WEEK! So find time to do those things that make you happy, forgive yourself for not being productive for a time, it’s important we take care of ourselves, we need to have happy days my friends. ~ Rev Kane

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Three Questions, February 21, 2025

Posted on February 24, 2025 by Michael Kane

There is a place in America for diversity of views and opinions. I may cook my gumbo differently from you, but that does not make mine better. I may just use different ingredients. Politics has gotten so spicy, and we need to cool it down some. We may find that your recipe for gumbo is just as good. ~ Donna Brazile

Three Questions, February 21, 2025

You can find the background to The Three Questions in my recent post about it. I’ll be answering the questions each day for the next year and putting this experience into a book. Here we go!

What was the most beautiful thing I encountered today?

A gorgeous bowl of homemade gumbo. I get better and better every time I make gumbo and tonight’s was fantastic.

What did I learn today?

I learned today that there is balance in the universe, I’m allergic to cats, I found out today, some cats are actually allergic to people.

What made me happy today?

What made me happy tonight was making homemade gumbo and a great dinner. I love gumbo and I’ve been making it for years, and I get better and better every time. Tonight I made a great batch of sausage and chicken gumbo, paired it with a shrimp cocktail and finished it off with some yogurt with dark chocolate and cinnamon a wonderful dinner.

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