Today crazy animals to help you raise a smile and have a happier day my friends ~ Rev Kane
First, Goats Yelling Like Humans
Not to be confused with imitators, the original Senile Yelling Cat, and no I have no idea why it is named that
Ok this dog is the thing nightmares are made of
Here is 10 minutes of insane cats, my favorites at the 1:46 and 2:06 marks
The weirdest animal in this one is the human
Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive. ~ The Dalai Lama
A few days ago I noticed on one of the movie channels that Woodstock was being broadcast. It hit me that although I’ve seen a number of clips and generally actually know the film a bit, I had never actually watched the whole thing through. So over the last few days I’ve been doing just that in bits of 30 minutes to an hour. The film has really had a surprising impact on me, you see the world was very different in 1969 and although I get that culture, business and technology change I felt that unfortunately people seemed to have changed as well. It feels like we’ve lost a level of civility that existed in the late 60’s and early 70’s.
At several points throughout the concert there are quiet songs played by folks like Richie Havens and Joan Baez, including a very quiet protest song by Joan Baez. She’s playing in front of 300,000 people and you can hear a pin drop, no screaming people, no woohooers, no one just yelling to hear the sound of their own voice. An actual reverence for the performs and more than that a respect, consideration and compassion for the performer. I can’t imagine this happening at a concert today; people are far too interested in hearing their own voices, attending to their own needs.
Watching the film if really feels like we’ve lost something in America, which is extra-ordinarily sad when you consider that the Woodstock Generation is now the generation in power in America. That we’ve lost something feels certain, the question nagging me for several days is what have lost. The answer I have come to is that we’ve lost common compassion. Sure when extraordinary events occur, earthquakes, typhoons, etc…we have compassion, we donate money we provide assistance. But what we seem to have lost is the common everyday compassion for those around us and the impacts our own actions have upon them. We seem to go through the world ignoring anyone but ourselves. I think this attitude is most visible in movie theaters, on the road driving, and in grocery stores where people often act amazingly selfishly and get angry if anyone points it out.
I was a five-year old kid living about 30 miles from Woodstock when the festival occurred. I have one distinct memory of that time and that was seeing the footage of the cars blocking the New York State Thruway, the big highway in this kids life. I guess that’s why Arlo Guthrie’s infamous, “the New York State Thruway is closed man,” has always resonated with me. So when they announced Woodstock 94 I had to go and I did. A friend and I without tickets of course, hitchhiked and walked into the festival actually hiking down the railroad tracks to evade the roadblocks that were stopping anyone without tickets. We ended up hitching a ride after the roadblocks with a van full of highly interesting folks down to the festival. Once there we ended up jumping the fence and camping for the night next to the grandson of Max Yasgur’s grandson and girlfriend. We shared a breakfast of Kit Kats with a couple from Japan who spoke no English and we wandered on into the throng of people.
It was my first experience with anything that could be called a sea of humanity and it was amazing. Too be honest, the music was the least of the attraction. The people, the energy, Joe Walsh just sitting on the ground playing guitar with a little sign that said, “hi, I’m Joe Walsh,” it was amazing. It was also peaceful, there were a lot of drugs no doubt and very little alcohol by comparison. However eventually, as happened in 69 eventually the gates were opened to all and the beer runs began, and as the place turned from peace and amazement to stumbling drunks and rain storms my friend and I slipped out and hitched and hiked back upstate in the rain. It seemed in one day in 94 I really saw the whole evolution of culture from 69 to 94 and quite frankly it was a little bit sad.
I attended my first Burning Man Festival in 2004 and the parallel I draw between the two is in the attitudes of the people. On the Playa at Burning Man there is a lot of the common compassion that is missing in our everyday society, people are genuinely kind and welcoming. In six trips to Burning Man, I’ve never seen a fist fight. However much as I saw at Woodstock in 94, once people leave the environment they fall back into their rude, self-absorbed everyday selves.
So what do I draw from both Woodstocks, from Burning Man, well it’s simple people can show common compassion for each other. Without a doubt the environment helps, people fall more easily into compassion on vacation or at a festival, but the environments we create at these festivals are created by us. So my friends we are capable of creating a personal environment where common compassion is the norm. Then all we need to create a similar local, regional or global environment is for our friends and loved ones to follow our example. So today my friends I’m calling for a common compassion movement, one person at a time, starting with myself and now with you. So show a little common compassion and we can all have a happy day my friends ~ Rev Kane
Happiness, Mindfulness & Decisions
Happiness, Attitudes & Simple Pleasures
Appalachian Trail Happiness: My Best Posts
All human wisdom is summed up in two words: wait and hope. ~ Alexandre Dumas
Near the end of 2020 the FDA approved two COVID 19 vaccines for use in the United States. Bold proclamations, primarily for political gain, were made about amazingly quickly people would be getting vaccinated including 20 million fully vaccinated by the end of 2020. Given that, that meant two vaccinations received, four weeks apart for twenty million people. It really meant that we needed to be, right out of the gate, vaccinating over a million people a day. Knowing at least a little bit about logistics, I really had doubts that something like that was even possible at the very beginning of vaccine distribution. And of course as we now know, I was right.
From there the whole vaccine process seemed completely jumbled and disjointed. While the CDC guidance was to start with frontline healthcare workers and that was happily well followed as it should have been. However from there, each county in each state basically followed it’s own plan, which to say at the very least has been confusing. Of course the first thing that has happened is that America has been America. There have been plenty of stories about people giving vaccines to friends and families who didn’t meet the current criteria. There was even a health carrier busted for creating a vaccine VIP distribution list. I doubt anyone who has grown up in America is surprised by this or by stories like people in well-off Marin County California utilizing priority access codes meant for low income communities so that vaccine distribution would be more equitable.
So, I watched as people I knew, younger people, completely healthy people got vaccines while older people with underlying conditions like myself struggled to even find out how to get access to even potential vaccination dates. Happily things have been improving, frontline and essential workers seem to be getting vaccinated fairly easily. President Biden set a goal of getting one hundred million Americans vaccinated in his first one hundred days and seems to be on track.
I’ve also started seeing some success for people who have qualified, just this week a an older friend in Tennessee, after a number of phone call and website adventures finally booked a date to get vaccinated. My brother, who has an underlying condition got notified that he has now qualified to schedule an appointment. It’s still not perfect, while most of the people in one of the departments I manage have gotten vaccinated or have set appointments, the oldest member of the department has had no luck. This does point to some of the randomness that still exists in the system. The good news of course is that things are getting better and now a third vaccine, one from Johnson and Johnson has been approved by the FDA.
For a change, the randomness bounced my way this week. After a staff member told me that they’d gotten an appointment notification through California’s state system, https://myturn.ca.gov . So I jumped on my cellphone and went to the site, put my information in and was told immediately that I didn’t qualify. It then asked if I wanted to input my information to get future information and being frustrated I just moved on. Later that night, I decided that in fact I should put my information in so that I would get notified if an appointment opened up. So I jumped on the site while on my laptop and when I put in my information, boom, it offered me an appointment and not just one. I had multiple options over a five day window including the next day. So I logged my first appointment. Now I’ve heard of people getting a first, but finding no available second dates available which means you can’t get vaccinated. But I was fortunate, there were multiple second dates available as well, so I quickly put in my information, answered the health questions and boom, I had my appointments. I will admit to at that moment feeling a bit elated. I think it’s the idea that some semblance of a normal life is a little bit closer, that I’m less likely to die from contracting COVID if I do, and one step closer to being able to go to NY and wrap my arms around my littlest niece who doesn’t yet know me in person.
I do want to mention one thing about the vaccines currently out. I had a staff member tell me that they were hesitant to get vaccinated because they didn’t want the virus injected in their body. To be clear, none of the current vaccines approved in the United States contain live or even dead coronavirus. They all employ technology that uses the genetic design of coronavirus to fool the body into manufacturing antibodies against the disease. What is injected in your body is not capable of giving you COVID 19.
So on Friday afternoon I set out for the Oakland Coliseum which is the location that I was assigned by the website. The website does something cool, if there aren’t available sites in your county, it will check the neighboring counties. So in my case, San Mateo county will not start vaccinating educators until this Monday, however Alameda county is, so I was sent to the mass vaccination site at the Oakland Coliseum. A bit of normalcy that this involved, with a 5:40PM on a Friday appointment, was of course Bay Area traffic. Friday afternoon is typically the worse time to be driving anywhere in the Bay Area. The evening before checking drive times, it said 37 minutes to the coliseum. On Friday afternoon that time was 1 hour and 7 minutes. So of course I gave myself an hour and 40 minutes to get there. Once I rolled up to the exit for the Coliseum traffic was at a standstill. I made the coliseum in a little over and hour and it took over 20 minutes to do the last 0.3 miles to the entrance.
Getting into the lot, things suddenly seemed very dystopian. The sight in front of you is lines of cars winding around the lot in giant Disney-like waiting lines. Interspersed around the lot are people in military fatigues, FEMA and CalOES uniforms and vests. Off in the distance you can see the pavilions where the actually vaccinations happens with generator driven floodlights everywhere. There is a field of emergency cones in every direction, portapotties, and as you come in you see RV’s from every emergency agency you can think of. It felt very much like the scenes in movies like Contagion where the military had arrived and set up quarantine camps. For the first time since last March, when I walked around empty streets with closed stores, no one on the streets and closed restaurants and shops, I once again felt like I was experiencing a bit of a Dystopian nightmare, except this time juxtaposed with a dose of hope.
A Calfire worker asked me my health questions and then another injected me. The system was very efficient, the whole drive around, multiple ID checks and injection took about 15 minutes. Another 15 minutes to wait to see if you had a reaction, I was checked on several times and then you drove on out. You never had to leave your car, it was great. I was injected with the Pfizer vaccine and given my appointment card for my second appointment. I’m writing this the day after the vaccination, that afternoon I definitely felt some pain around the injection site, it was stiffer this morning and I had a bit of a headache. By this evening the site of the shot is still a bit tender but I’m feeling back to normal. As I was in my timeout waiting to be released I could see a beautiful full moon in the distance. Hopefully this experience is the beginning of the end of our dystopian pandemic experience and also the beginning of returning to relative normal. Good luck in getting vaccinated yourselves my friend.
A true friend is someone who is there for you when they would rather be anywhere else. ~ Len Wein
I’m someone who has a small circle of friends. Sure, I know lots of people, I have friends on Facebook and people who I can spend time with, but honestly, although we use the term friend for these people, in fact, these people are acquaintances. Why do I say this? To me a friend is someone you can truly count on. This means to me, those people I truly call friends are the ones I can call at 4AM and they’ll pick up the phone, the people who if I called and said I need you here, the conversation wouldn’t be about if, but about when. I have very few people I put into this category. So even pre-pandemic, I made an effort to keep these people in my life as much as possible. I make an effort not just to stay in contact but to see these people face to face whenever possible. This has been I think, the hardest part of the pandemic on all of us, not seeing the people that mean the most to us in person.
At work, early in the pandemic I reached out individually to all of the people I supervise to check-in on them. For some who weren’t doing so well, it meant checking back from time to time to make sure they were ok. I did the same with the people I care most about. I’m not special, I think a lot of us did this, I also got calls and check-ins from people who care about me. I know of friends who really did cool things, weekly notes to friends or staff, random chocolate deliveries. Some people just reacted in ways they normally wouldn’t have in other times to maintain that contact. A former student of mine, one I’m incredibly proud of, she works at JPL on the deep space communication network, she sent me a gift after I mentioned something to her about the item when she showed it on Instagram.
Recently I had a friend ask to verify my mailing address, I didn’t think much of it, I move a LOT, and even my friends often lose track of which address they have for me is the correct one. But then this week I got a package, the lovely mug and tea pictured below with a card inviting me to tea. What a really wonderful and spectacular idea, the card simply said that this person wanted to keep in contact with the people important to them. And as such, they invited me to have tea over Zoom regularly and were kind enough to provide the tea for the first three.
So a simple post and a simple lesson tonight. Keep the people that are important to you, close to you. Life is short and complicated and it’s easy to lose track of these people, especially if like me, your people are not geographically close to you. So call, write, send them some chocolate or invite them to tea over Zoom. If you do this you’ll keep these people close and have happier days my friends. ~ Rev Kane
You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty. ~ Mahatma Gandhi
Originally published is 2018
This is not my normal type of post for the Ministry of Happiness, but these my friends are not normal times, or maybe they are, and if so, then I’m really sad.
I had a hard time getting out of bed this morning. It started with the fact that I’ve tweaked some muscles in my neck and it eases up during the day but stiffens overnight. So raising my head this morning to get up was a painful proposition. So I laid back down and got lazy and grabbed my phone and procrastinated getting out of bed. I quickly encountered the news about the officers who were shot in Dallas, there was information about a black man found hung in Piedmont Park in Atlanta. It was quickly deemed a suicide, too quickly some believe and no autopsy is too be performed. It’s hard right now to simply just trust the authorities after the recent news about the deaths of more black men being shot on traffic stops or while selling CD’s in front of a store. I don’t want to have that distrust but these days it is pretty hard not to.
The news hit me harder than I expected, I laid in bed for a while feeling what I can only describe as despair. Sure, I got up, I went to work and while engaged in all of the busyness of my job I was distracted and felt ok. But once that ended it was back, throughout the day via Facebook I saw posts that made me hopeful, posts about hope and unity going forward. But I also saw far too much hate in the responses of people to the events that have happened and it filled me with despair.
I’m a lucky man, I have friends of all types scattered all over the world (I wish they were nearer). My selected family is composed of a wonderfully diverse set of humans and this set includes conservatives, deeply religious Christians, Atheists, Buddhists, Muslims, flaming liberals, libertarians and people who really don’t care at all about politics. I have gay, straight, bi and trans friends, I have monogamous happily married friends, swinger friends, even polyamorous friends. These friends come in every shade of human and within all of those sets and there are some combinations of descriptors that make for some seriously lovely and unique humans.
In the last few weeks, we’ve seen a lot of the communities my friends exist in get attacked, from Orlando to Minnesota, from Baton Rouge to Dallas, yes I have family and friends who are cops as well. I’m sick of it, I’m tired of the hate, the ignorance, the political polarization, the myth of an exceptional America. An exceptional country does not harbor the levels of disrespect, hate and racism that exist in this country.
We have to change, for the savior of our country and our very souls we have to do better. These issues are not the fault of liberals or conservatives, the media is not the problem, President Obama did not cause this. We are the cause of all of it and that is both the good and the bad news. The good news being that if we caused it, we can fix it.
We have to get off of the stereotypes, but we also have to correct the problems of bias and racism that are cooked into the very structure of our society. Let me tell you how I learned about white privilege in fourth grade. In our elementary school locker room we had baskets we left our clothes in when we changed for gym class. Some idiot flipped a bunch of baskets over while we were in class and our clothes were jumbled. No big deal, there were three of us and there were three pair of underwear. One generic pair that were pretty ratty, and two pair of Fruit of the Looms, one pristine, one in good shape but with a little split near the tag. The three of us, one white, one black, and one brown. Now two of us were middle class, one was very poor and as such he immediately and accurately was given the non-Fruit of the Loom pair. That left two of us and I honestly believed that my underwear had no damage. My friend Joe, also believed the same thing. The gym teacher came in, heard the claim and without blinking gave the split pair to the black kid and gave me the pristine pair. I felt vindicated until walking down the hall a little while later I remembered, mine did have a split. For a long-time I didn’t understand why I was automatically given the best pair. It took me being older and reflecting on it to realize it had simply been the color of my skin.
The way people look should not be how we determine how to treat them, but it is. We treat white, black and brown people different. Beautiful people are treated better, I get far better treatment in my work clothes than I do on the weekend in a pair of jeans. If we determine someone looks gay, whatever the hell that is supposed to look like, we treat them differently. Dressed like a hippie, have a big beard, be anything but 1950’s normal white in this country and you are treated differently.
I saw a post from someone today about how they were incorrectly pulled over and they listened to the cop and nothing bad happened. The person that wrote it was white and the implication was clear, that if black people just behaved themselves they wouldn’t have any problems, wouldn’t get shot. The post made me incredibly angry, this person’s world view is myopic and bigoted whether they realize it or not. It made me sick that people liked the post. I don’t fit the 1950’s stereotype of white America, I have been pulled over for driving while looking like a hippie, this past year a cop admitted that the way I looked was the reason for the stop. I have had cops try to do illegal searches on these stops, I’ve been roughed up, I once had my driver’s license whipped into my eye. Black and brown drivers have it way worse than I do. So no, just obeying the law and doing what your told sometimes isn’t protection against harm, and when it happens often enough to a person, they understandably get frustrated and angry. None of this justifies being unjustly shot by a cop and as horrible as the ingrained racism in our society is, the reaction can’t be to start shooting cops that’s equally unjust.
I’m afraid for my country tonight, a hot summer Friday night with passions running high and protests in many, many places. We may be seeing a return to the type of violence and upheaval we saw in the late sixties. I would have hoped we could have gotten to the kind of positive change we saw after that period, without the violence, but it doesn’t look like that will be our path.
What can we do? You’re one person, you can’t fix society, end institutional racism, de-polarize America’s politics by yourself, and you’re right. But there are things we can do, simple things that may seem silly but may have more of an impact than you imagine. First, smile at people, especially people who don’t look like you, especially people who are likely on the margins of society, hell go crazy and say hello or have a nice day for no damn reason, hold the door open for them, thank them if they hold a door for you.
Call out the bullshit in your world, if your friend or family member expresses an idea that is bigoted call them out. Ok, you’re 90 year-old grandma gets a pass, but no one else. There is no need to do it publicly and start a fight, delete the comment, message them directly and have a conversation friend to friend without name calling or anger, the purpose is for everyone to understand each other, to understand the impact that our words have. If someone can’t do that, do you really want them as a friend on your social media account? I realize confrontation sucks, but allowing bigoted remarks to stand on your page is tacit approval of what’s being said.
Watch your assumptions. I see people jumping on each other because they assume intent that may not be there. Not every black person hates white people, not all whites are racist. Just because someone supports Black Lives Matters it doesn’t mean they don’t think other lives don’t, don’t assume they do. Equally, don’t assume that whites who feel frustrated or feel under attack are racists, you can feel the pressure of change, you can feel embattled and not turn to hateful thoughts. We all must find a way to put ourselves in other people’s shoes.
Actually talk to people. We have to talk to each other about these issues, not on social media, not in sound bites, but face to face. We have to have discussions about the issues in this country, those conversations can be uncomfortable as hell. But if they are done with open hearts and open minds, if we are respectful of one another’s feelings, we can do it and foster understanding and empathy.
My friends we have to try an understand each other, we have to care about each other regardless of whether or not we share a religion, a skin color, a sexual orientation or a political party. Almost every person I know has either a religious belief or a philosophy that they adhere to in life. I’ve made a point in life to be familiar with most of these and from Islam to Christianity to Taoism, to agnostic ideas of right and wrong none of these philosophies espouse hate as a way to a better life. Sure, none of them are perfect, they can be interpreted in ways to create the “other” or outsiders. However the core message that Jesus, Mohammad, Buddha, Lao Tzu, Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi, the Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh, Mother Teresa, Khalil Gibran or any of the other philosophers of life we read espoused was simple, love one another, be good to each other, don’t kill each other. If we could just do that, we’d all have happier days my friends. ~ Rev Kane
Dawn at Burning Man
If there is no struggle, there is no progress ~ Frederick Douglas
There is a specific reason for the quote I used tonight, I’m struggling with happiness. I know, the guy who writes the happiness blog probably shouldn’t admit he’s struggling with happiness. But if I can’t be honest with your dear friends, where’s my credibility?
Now let me be clear, I’m generally pretty happy. This journey I’ve been on over the last 20 years, to become a happier person, has certainly been successful. I routinely used to suffer from bouts of depression, some near debilitating, but something in my blue-collar background just wouldn’t let me pack it in and stay in bed. So I would find a way through what I used to call falling into the well. Luckily, I’m apparently not someone with the type of chemical imbalance in the brain that can’t be fought. Those folks can’t function without drugs to balance them out and I have incredible empathy for their struggle. My struggle has always been purely psychological, not chemical.
Fear is killing your happiness
Quite frankly I can’t even remember the last time I was truly in the well. I have my dips, usually when I’m not getting enough sleep, eating badly and not exercising. Not that I’m in some perfect bubble of happiness. At times, my overactive brain will run down a path and for a moment I’ll get absolutely lost and the thought I should just end it crosses my mind. The thought is immediately dismissed, I believe that the thought is just me, for a just a second, hitting the limits of my exasperation with some of the realities I face that I’m not happy with.
Of course, part of what this journey has been, has been me working to change those realities that I’m able to change. I’m happy with the progress I’ve made. And generally, that progress is what keeps me happy. Right now a couple of the realities I’m facing that are beating me up a bit are related to my eternal lack of patience. As I get closer to understanding exactly what I want my life to be, and what I need to get there, I struggle with not being there right now!
Patience
Like all of you, there are bills to pay, and a job to work to earn the money to pay those bills. Add to that all of life’s realities and responsibilities and the time they consume and the time left doesn’t allow me to make the progress I want to make. I know you know what I’m talking about, for many of you it is a job, kids, bills, household and family responsibilities. All of this wears us down and steals precious time for our goals. But that’s reality, and although the path through is acceptance, patience and persistence it’s not always easy. And not always possible to do it with a smile and be happy about it. And that’s where I am, recently I’ve just gotten worn down and am finding it hard to accept reality.
An oldie but goody, Mork from Ork
In the end, we have no choice, so forward we go. Acceptance, patience and persistence that is the lesson. Then, after some time, you look back and see the progress, the goal in sight and you realize how much it was worth the work. So my friends, accept your reality for what it is, be patient and keep moving forward, and so will I. I’m pulling for you and wishing you a happy day my friends. ~ Rev Kane
Fear is Killing Your Happiness
Our Best Happiness Posts from 2015
Revisiting Some of Our Best Posts & Pictures
There are Angels Among Us: A True Story of Giving & Kindness
Monk in the Portola Palace, Tibet
Mastering others is strength. Mastering yourself is true power ~ Lao Tzu
Originally posted in August, 2017
So today my friends I’m on the horns of a dilemma, you see a potential opportunity has come my way and I’m torn. This is not so unusual, we all go through times where we have to decide whether or not to take the left fork or the right. The choice is always a bit tough, but once you’ve sat down and weighed both directions the right choice is usually forthcoming. I’ve always been one who believes in looking forward and once you’ve made a decision you live with it. This time however I’m having a bit of trouble, you see I’ve been sitting here in the road between the forks contemplating and I can’t seem to come to a decision. The situation has been weighing on me and has really wrecked my sleep over the last week or so.
It has taken me some time but I have at least identified why this particular decision has caused me so much anguish. You see once you break down a decision to its principle components it is easier to decide because it is easier to figure out which of the two options most closely allies itself with your core values. We here about core values a lot, we talk about how much we value things in common conversation, but deep down there are some things that are core to who we are as a human being. For many of us that is family, (genetic or chosen), friends and hopefully for a lot you the work you do. The decision I have to make at this point is so difficult because the options both reflect core values that I have.
Living a happier life occurs when we live closer to our core values. It is important that each of us get to know ourselves so that we understand what truly drives us, and therefore what truly makes us happy. So today my friends I want you to take a few minutes to think about what is truly important to you. Keep those things in mind as you continue on your journey and as always, have a happy day my friends. ~ Rev Kane
Happiness and the Benefits of Gratitude
Fear is Killing Your Happiness
Another batch of my photos from NOLA – Mardi Gras 2016, enjoy and have a happy day my friends ~ Rev Kane
Hippie fishing in the quarter
Mardi Gras 2016: Street Musicians & Bead Tosses
Today I choose life. Every morning when I wake up I can choose joy, happiness, negativity, pain… To feel the freedom that comes from being able to continue to make mistakes and choices – today I choose to feel life, not to deny my humanity but embrace it.~ Kevyn Aucoin
Today my friends an odd title for a blog on happiness, happiness and pain seem about as far apart as two things can be. We all have pain, we’ve all lost love and loved ones and for some of us those losses might be quite fresh. Sometimes we feel as though pain is all that there is in our lives. Pain is a part of life, we all will experience it at some time in our life and if may feel as though we can’t survive it. That’s my first point tonight, you have, you will survive the pain in your life. As the Taoists say, no storm lasts forever, no matter how fierce. So first, you know this, keep that in your mind.
For me pain has a second edge and that is creativity, I write my best poetry when I’m in pain. The blacker my mood becomes the more I write, it’s become a psychic survival tool for me. The writing helps, it burns out the negative energy and brings light into the darkness through art and creation. My second point, find a way to create when you’re hurting, write, paint, take photographs, build, knit, crochet, hell grab a coloring book and color. There is something life affirming and positive about the process of creation, even if what you create isn’t all that beautiful.
So tonight my friends, as I write this I’m dealing with some pain of my own, the effects are being exacerbated by a medical issue messing with my brain chemistry. But I’ve been writing and exercising, eating right and doing the things I know to do to keep my mood up. This storm, as have all the previous ones, will pass the clouds will part, the sun will come out again and life will be even better than it already is today. A little of my writing below. If you’re in pain I’m hoping your storm will pass soon my friend, know that someone cares and look forward to happy days. ~ Rev Kane
Alone in the Depths 9/10/16
I miss her
like a drowning man
misses oxygen
at first scrambling for the light
then,
there is pain
finally, utter panic
as I dig for the surface
not enough progress
only to remember
I tied the anchor to my ankles
forced separation from the light
the only hope for my sanity
but I find myself
unable to give myself over
relax,
let it come over me
I ache
I sink
I’m alone in the depths
Happiness is Poetry: Ashe Vernon
Happiness is Poetry: Warsan Shire
Happiness is Poetry: Doug Draime
So a little writing experiment for the blog. I’ve been wanting to find a way to do some free writing as practice. And I’ve been wanting to capture the moments in my life that have brought me true happiness. I need that little pick me up right now with everything going on in the world and no real chance to travel. So, some writing about happy moments in my life, hope they bring you a little happiness too.
The easiest way for me to raise a smile, to feel happy is to watch children play. Particularly toddlers, the way they interact with the world is intoxicating. They have some so much curiosity about everything, so many things amuse them and their emotions are pure and exaggerated. And while that makes an unhappy toddler a potential nightmare to deal with, when they are happy and at play the come to joy so quickly and expressively. Seeing that, remembering that state brings me incredible joy and the absolute most wonderful thing in the world for me is when babies and toddlers laugh uncontrollably.
One of my favorites is of a baby laughing at ripping paper.
The other day I had a wonderful moment seeing just this sort of thing. While I was jogging at the park I saw young mom with her two kids. One was three or four, the other about eighteen months old. The little guy was sitting on the grass looking up at the sky and it became apparent quickly that he really digs birds. A bird flew overhead and he was so focused on it that he fell over on his back. He was so happy to have seen the bird he burst out laughing when he fell over. He then spotted a couple of ravens about fifty yards away in the park and off he went. Now, he knew he wasn’t supposed to go that far away from mom, I could tell by the way he was moving. He would spring toward the birds, stop, look over his shoulder, spring a little further and do it again. He got about half way to the birds before he got busted and mom came running after him. Now it may seem that, that would be the end of his bird joy, but it wasn’t. As mom came running up, he made one last dash for the ravens and they flew up into the air. Apparently causing them to fly was the point because he burst out laughing again as they did.
It made me so happy to see someone get so much joy from something as simple as a bird flying up into the air. We can learn so much from munchkins. Have a happy day my friends. ~ Rev Kane
The Ministry of Happiness 