Happiness is waiting for Yogi

Posted on January 4, 2014 by Michael Kane

Happiness is waiting for Yogi

Making the decision to have a child—it’s momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking outside your body ~ Elizabeth Stone

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So for the next couple of days my family is on baby watch, my brother’s wife has reached her due date and we are all awaiting the birth of my newest nephew, their first child, who we affectionately refer to as Yogi.  We call the little guy Yogi because on one of the early ultrasounds he looked like he was doing in utero Yoga poses.  Anybody already doing Yoga poses pre-birth must be a Yogi.

This is going to be a special birth to me, my brother is significantly younger than I am and I helped raise him.  As such he is to me more than a brother, nearly a son, so little Yogi is almost like a nephew and a grandson all wrapped up in one.  So I’m really excited, waiting for Yogi and having a happy day my friends ~ Rev Kane

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Happiness and New Year Resolutions

Posted on January 3, 2014 by Michael Kane

Happiness and New Year Resolutions

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other ~ Abraham Lincoln

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Hello my friends, so a new year has started and many of us have resolved to make some changes in the coming new year.  Below is a list of the 10 most common resolutions people make each year and over the next couple of weeks we’ll address each of them in their own separate piece and hopefully help you be more successful.  For tonight, here’s a piece on the overall strategy for being successful with resolutions.  So give it a read, stay focused and successful and have a happy day my friends ~ Rev Kane

1.  Weight-loss

2.  Exercise

3.  Budget money better

4.  Get a new/better job

5.  Eat more healthfully

6.  Manage stress better

7.  Quite smoking or another bad habit

8.  Improve a relationship

9.  Stop Procrastinating

10.  Take some time for myself

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Happy New Year – 2014

Posted on December 31, 2013 by Michael Kane

Happy New year – 2014!!!

New Year’s Day:  Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions.  Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.  ~ Mark Twain

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Happy New Year 2014 my friends, may it be a wonderful year full of wonder and magic, to start your year off some words from Deng Ming-Dao on beginnings.  Have a happy day every day all year my friends ~ Rev Kane

Beginning

This is the moment of embarking
All auspicious signs are in place

In the beginning, all things are hopeful. We prepare ourselves to start anew. Though we may be intent on the magnificent journey ahead, all things are contained in this first moment: our optimism, our faith, our resolutions, our innocence.

In order to start, we must make a decision. This decision is a commitment to daily self-cultivation. We must make a strong connection to our inner selves. Outside matters are superfluous. Alone and naked, we negotiate all of life’s travails. Therefore, we alone must make something of ourselves, transforming ourselves into the instruments for experiencing the deepest spiritual essence of life.

Once we make our decision, all things will come to us. Auspicious signs are not a superstition, but a confirmation. They are a response. It is said that if one chooses to pray to a rock with enough devotion, even that rock will come alive. In the same way, once we choose to commit ourselves to spiritual practice, even the mountains and valleys will reverberate to the sound of our purpose.

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Happiness is Amateur Night: New Year’s Eve

Posted on December 30, 2013 by Michael Kane

Happiness is Amateur Night:  New Year’s Eve

Drop the last year into the silent limbo of the past.  Let it go, for it was imperfect, and thank God that it can go.  ~Brooks Atkinson

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Happy New Year’s Eve my friends, tonight we celebrate the end of a year and the beginning of the next.  We hope to put behind us the things that went wrong this year, the bad news, bad memories.  We look forward to the morning and the New Year, the resolutions we will surely keep, the changes we’ll make, all the good things that are coming.  At least for tonight all of that is true and certain.

A long time ago a family friend, Jack Wrigley, was the first to refer to New Year’s Eve as amateur night.  I didn’t quite fully comprehend until I was older and started attending New Year’s Eve parties.  Once I did I got it, a night for people who don’t normally drink to get drunk and out of control.   Inevitably it seemed some drunk always wanted to take a swing, there were drunks all over the road and quite honesty those parties were rarely fun.  So I adopted a habit of either ignoring or quietly celebrating New Year’s Eve off the beaten path, lots of bonfires in the mountains or on the coast.  I nice quiet way to bring in the New Year and avoid the hangover the next day.

So if you are going out to celebrate tonight take care, be careful and watch out for those who are not, and have a happy New Year’s Eve my friends  ~ Rev Kane

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Looking forward to Happiness in 2014

Posted on December 29, 2013 by Michael Kane

Looking forward to Happiness in 2014

True happiness comes from the joy of deeds well done, the zest of creating things new ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery

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Here comes a new year, a chance for new opportunities, to erase the mistakes we made, to do better than we did last year.  A chance to set goals, dream dreams and find ways to make the impossible possible.  The beauty of a new year is the beauty of new possibilities.  The fact is however, that a new year is not special, it’s just a trick of the calendar that we play on ourselves.  Every day is a new day and just like a new year, a new start, a new opportunity to set and achieve goals, to do a little bit better than we did the day before.

So look forward to the next year and make our plans but remember that the plans and successes of a year, are accomplished piece by piece each day of the year.  To help you get ready here’s a piece on setting and achieving goals from our friends at Zen Habits, and please have a happy day my friends ~ Rev Kane

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Looking Back at Happiness in 2013 & Thank You

Posted on December 29, 2013 by Michael Kane

Looking Back at Happiness in 2013 & Thank You

I must learn to be content with being happier than I deserve. ~ Jane Austen

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Hello friends, tonight a look back at last year, I really hate all of the year-end top 10 lists but I think the exercise of looking back is a useful one, it’s good to know how far you have come.

For me personally this year has been a bit of a roller coaster, but I have some goals to achieve in the upcoming year and I feel that I made some progress towards what I need to do to achieve those goals.  How about you friends?  How far did you come toward your goals?  I can say with confidence that I am happier today than I was a year ago, a lot of that has to do with the work I do here with the Church of Abnormal Acceptance and the Ministry of Happiness.

On that front we have had a great year, we’ve more than doubled the number of followers, we are over 1500 now through the various social media and blog outlets.  We broke 20,000 views and have had our fourth consecutive year of increasing readership.  I thank you all very much for your attention here, your feedback and comments are always welcome and if we’ve helped you be a happier person please spread the word.  Most importantly I hope we’ve helped you have happier days.

Thanks for a wonderful 2013 ~ Rev Kane

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Happiness is Santa Claus

Posted on December 22, 2013 by Michael Kane

Happiness is Santa Claus

By first believing in Santa Claus, then the Easter Bunny, then the Tooth Fairy, Rant Casey was recognizing that those myths are more than pretty stories and traditions to delight children. Or to modify behavior. Each of those three traditions asks a child to believe in the impossible in exchange for a reward. These are stepped-up tests to build a child’s faith and imagination ~ Chuck Palahniuk

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Hello friends, tonight a little piece on the jolly fat man of the North Pole.  Honestly I’ve always struggled with the idea that we lie to our kids, this was of course before I had kids in my life.  Watching my little nieces and nephews loose their minds over Santa Claus, the pure unbridled joy in their eyes makes it a no brainer.  I think it’s good to let them believe there is still magic in the world and now I feel bad when they lose that ability.

So ramp the little ones up, take them to the mall santa, throw tennis balls on the roof and let them think they are reindeer hooves, find a heavy set friend and have him bring some presents into the house and ho ho ho around a bit.  Let the little one’s imagination run wild so they can have a happy day my friends ~ Rev Kane

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Happy Winter Solstice

Posted on December 21, 2013 by Michael Kane

Happy Winter Solstice

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Smiles from the threshold of the year to come,
Whispering ‘it will be happier’… ~ Alfred Tennyson

For those of you less Christmas oriented Happy Winter Solstice today, a friend shared this piece on Facebook and I thought it was perfect for today ~ Rev Kane

The Shortest Day by Susan Cooper

So the shortest day came, and the year died,
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive,
And when the new year’s sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, reveling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us – Listen!!
All the long echoes sing the same delight,
This shortest day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, fest, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome Yule!!

 

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Christmas Happiness: Holiday Season Images

Posted on December 20, 2013 by Michael Kane

Christmas Happiness: Holiday Season Images

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Christmas is a season for kindling the fire for hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart ~ Washington Irving

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Happiness Resources – December 2013

Posted on December 11, 2013 by Michael Kane

Happiness Resources – December 2013

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A collection of pieces from a tour around the web ~ Rev Kane

First tonight a set of teaching resources for lessons on happiness!

The Happiness Directory a nice little set of resources in a lot of different forms.

Why HR should stand for happiness resources, a really nice piece from the Guardian.

Is happiness is the secret of success? – an opinion piece from CNN written by Shawn Achor

How to find happiness, a really interesting piece.

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