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?
Driving off campus tonight, as I passed the soccer field, the munchkins were out having soccer practice. As I was driving by something caught my eye, little legs flying like a cartoon character lifted off his feet and still running in air. It was completely comical, this little guy was flying across the field and was absolutely the most beautiful thing I saw today.
What did I learn today?
What I learned today was that Stephen Hawking threw a part for time travelers. The people he invited, he invited the day after the date of the party. His hope was that the invitations or the information would live on to the future. And that a future time traveler would find it and attend the party. Unfortunately, no one showed up.
What made me happy today?
A simple thing today, just the sun on my face on a beautiful morning as I did my walk. Sometimes the simplest things are the best.
My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither, but just enjoy your ice cream while it’s on your plate. ~ Thornton Wilder
Just a Happy Day
It’s been a rough few days, the fact is humanity has been kicking my ass, the uncertainty of what will happen with the next administration, returning to work and finally just dealing with the selfishness and impatience of humanity has really beat on me.
As I have preached on this blog for years, when you’re off you need to go back to basics, exercise, eat well, get enough sleep. That’s what I’ve been working on doing. It takes a couple of days to really have an impact and I woke up feeling pretty good today. I had a meeting to go to down near the airport that I really didn’t want to attend, it was kind of being dumped on me and my expectations were low. Currently I have to park on the top of the hill away from my apartment while they do seismic retrofits on our parking area in front of my building. So as I walked out this morning, the jack hammering had stopped, and when I hit the base of the stairs I quickly saw why. The trench they had dug to set the steel beam was being jack hammered out and they had jack hammered into the main water line. The two foot deep trench was full, water was bubbling in the middle like a fountain and guys we’re running around excitedly. I looked at a worker and said, “that’s not good.” He smiled, “no, no it’s not.” I got to my meeting and had to wait at security for over ten minutes before they came to get me. But that left me standing in the parking lot, looking out over the San Francisco Bay on a beautiful sunny morning watching geese fly into the bay, fantastic.
The meeting turned out to be really good. The folks I were meeting with were really competent and forward thinking, they even had reasonable timeline expectations for the projecct we’re contemplating putting together, it was great. Then as I was leaving they asked me about some other things I’d mentioned and I ended up picking up two potential side gigs and a management coaching client. So all in all a really great meeting.
I then had a coaching session with one of my favorite clients this afternoon and we had a really fantastic session. I had a great lunch and got in a short walk in campus. A couple of draggy afternoon meetings and then I made a decision. It had been such a good day I decided to reward myself and picked up ice cream on the way home and made a wonderful root beer float to celebrate a really good day.
It’s important when you’re not feeling great to take action. Address the triggers that you know impact your mood, lack of sleep is probably the number one trigger that I know tanks my mood. But action is important and finally, it really matters to celebrate good things. Even if it’s just a minor thing like a good day after a rough time, celebrate, be happy, this is your one and only life. Have a happy day my friends. ~ Rev Kane
We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch – we are going back from whence we came. ~ John F Kennedy
Three Questions, January 7, 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?
This morning I had a meeting out near the airport with a local industry. They were delayed in coming to the front gate to get me for the meeting, so that left me standing in the parking lot looking out over the San Francisco Bay on a gorgeous sunny morning, geese honking and flying in, absolutely beautiful.
What did I learn today?
Today I nerded out on a topic that I really find fascinating, sending a craft to a nearby star system. The idea is that we could send a very small probe, like the size of Voyager 1, to Alpha Centauri in about 40 years by deploying wings that would catch light particles and then drive the probe to near the speed of light by hitting it with a high powered beam of light, amazing.
What made me happy today?
Today was a good day, I was sent to a meeting that everyone else bowed out from, it was essentially a dump on me because no one thought it was important. Well, turned out to be a really good meeting, and I definitely got the last laugh, I picked up two side gigs and a management coaching client from the meeting, cha ching! I decided to bracket the day and ended it with a root beer float, it was fantastic.
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?
It was a particularly active day at my hummingbird feeder and the most beautiful thing I saw today was a gorgeous ruby throated hummingbird at my feeder.
What did I learn today?
What I learned today was that in order to be a gargoyle there must be a water supply, if there’s no water supply it’s technically called a grotesque.
What made me happy today?
A really quiet Monday, first actual Monday back from vacation. No significant drama, no one drove me crazy just a day to get work done.
Real misanthropes are not found in solitude, but in the world; since it is experience of life, and not philosophy, which produces real hatred of mankind. ~ Giacomo Leopardi
a person who dislikeshumankind and avoids human society.”Scrooge wasn’t the mean-spirited misanthrope most of us believe him to be”
I start out with this definition tonight because honestly it’s who I am. And there are days, like the one on which I’m writing this post where my misanthropic nature takes over my mood and my life for a day. Honestly it’s not usually a large thing that tips me over the edge but the death of my soul by paper cuts. Over the last couple of days, it didn’t help that it was a super Monday. I digress, I call the first day back to work after a long weekend or vacation a super Monday, regardless of what day of the week it happens to be. So first it’s a super Monday, then someone was in my parking spot which forced me to park in a spot that I had to be out of very early in the morning. Which meant I didn’t get shit for sleep, woke up to rain that I didn’t expect. Went out for breakfast, server had no idea what they were doing and I made the error of giving them a twenty and change for a nineteen and change bill. They were baffled and gave me back completely incorrect change, honestly the change should have been a single dollar. Then there were all of the standard idiot drivers and it all just stacked up to kill my mood.
These are the days when staying happy is really hard. So you have to do the things you know you need to do. You eat well, you exercise and for me, most of all, you get enough sleep. And of course as an introvert and a raging misanthrope, you stay the hell away from people until you get right again. That’s where I’m at today.
This is one of the reasons that doing the three questions exercise is so important. On a day like today, it’s a heavy lift, but sitting down and writing that simple post was a good reminder, that even on a shitty, rainy, super Monday there was beauty, there was learning and I did find at least a little happiness. I hope you did as well today my friends. ~ Rev Kane
There’s no better feeling in the world than a warm pizza box on your lap.~ Kevin James
Three Questions, January 5, 2024
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 on my walk around San Francisco I came across an amazing sculpture. It was an angel, but it was an imperfect angel which somehow made it all that more beautiful.
What did I learn today?
I don’t like what I learned today. A pizza place I really like shutdown one of it’s location and moved to a new one. I went to check it out today and it’s a takeout only place with no seating and there is nowhere near it to conveniently sit. They don’t serve slices so this was a real disappointment.
What made me happy today?
After my disappointing learning experience I did a five mile round trip walk to go to another location of this pizza place and have a very lovely pizza.
Does wisdom perhaps appear on the earth as a raven which is inspired by the smell of carrion? ~ Friedrich Nietzsche
Three Questions, January 4, 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 on my walk, on a gray and cold day with most of the vegetation settling in for winter, I found a little burst of three pink flowers in a planter and they were absolutely beautiful.
What did I learn today?
Ravens fascinate me and every time I learn something new about them I’m more and more amazed. It has been reported that in the wild, Ravens will call wolves to the site of dead animals as once the wolves eat on a carcass the Ravens can then access the carcass for food.
What made me happy today?
Today my bad mood has continued, but last night I marinated some boneless ribs and grilled them today. I have always loved grilling when it’s cold out, in the Northeast I used to love grilling in the middle of winter. Something about food off the grill when it’s cold out makes it taste extra good, and my friends it was.
Happiness is hard to recall. Its just a glow. ~ Frank McCourt
Three Questions, January 3, 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 did I encounter that made me happy today?
Today the most beautiful thing I saw was a picture of a sunset and it reminded me of some of my favorite sunsets.
What did I learn today?
Actually today I learned quite a lot about Marilyn Monroe, listened to one of my favorite podcasts, The Rest is History, their episode on Marilyn Monroe was incredibly interesting. As was the one on one of my favorite topics, the Loch Ness monster, that I also listened to today.
What made me happy today?
Frankly, not much. I’ve been in a foul mood all day. Today was one of those days where the inherent selfish and inconsiderate nature of people really wore me down. But one thing that made me happy was getting a note from someone I care about deeply.
I know the joy of fishes in the river through my own joy, as I go walking along the same river. ~ Zhuangzi
Three Questions, January 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?
On my walk today I suddenly heard honking and looked up to see a big flock of Canadian geese flying only a few feet over head, totally cool.
What did I learn today?
Today I learned about a really cool dolphin. Pelorus Jack, a Risso’s dolphin (uncommon in New Zealand) that accompanied ships traveling between Wellington and Nelson, was so named because he would meet boats near the entrance to Pelorus Sound, in the Marlborough Sounds. First noticed in 1888 when he joined a steamer bound for Nelson, Pelorus Jack spent the next 24 years escorting boats from Pelorus Sound to treacherous French Pass, a narrow stretch of water between D’Urville Island and the mainland, where the water surges through at up to 8 knots.
Pelorus Jack always remained within a well-defined area. He joined boats heading for Nelson at the entrance to Pelorus Sound and swam to, but never through, French Pass. On the reverse journey, he met ships as they came out of the pass, staying with them for the 8 kilometers to Pelorus Sound before going his own way. He enjoyed swimming up against the boats and riding their bow waves.
What made me happy today?
Well it certainly wasn’t returning to work. What made me happy today was getting fully back into my healthy routines in term of eating, working out, etc…
There really isn’t anything more refreshing then iced Coke out of the old-school glass bottles. ~ Mark Zupan
Three Questions, January 1, 2025
What did I encounter that was beautiful today?
I saw a little girl, around two years-old walking with her father. Well, actually she was grabbing her father by the hand and running him to things to look at and then explaining each thing in mad gibberish. Then she would grab his hand and sprint for the next thing, laughing the whole way. Which made her dad laugh and me laugh as well as I was walking by.
What did I learn today?
I learned today that when in 1959, Volvo invented the three-point harness safety belt. That instead of keeping it proprietary and making money off of it, they released the design to every car dealer. It’s estimated that this invention has saved over a million lives globally.
What made me happy today?
I’m gearing up to lose some weight, get in full hiking shape and into better shape for my surgery in August. I also need to get my diabetes even better in control than it currently is, so after this week, I’m back to my one coke a week regulation. So today, I had my last coke before the regulation is back in place. I drank it slowly while also enjoying a couple of York peppermint patties. It was a small thing, but it made me happy.
The Ministry of Happiness 