happyness

I was walking along this afternoon, running errands, nothing special, and I felt this surge of lightness, a bubble of happiness and I wondered what triggered that. I mean, I am usually pretty happy, but this little bubble made me want to skip or grin or something.

And I thought that it might be that my kid and my Mom were, for now, safe and settled finally, but it wasn't that sort of heavy-duty, relief-filled happy bubble.

The sun was out, making the snow sparkle and melting the icy sidewalks. I was loving being back in my neighborhood. My short shift at the theater had been busy and fun. A book I requested from the library was in and I was about to pick it up. There was a bottle of wine in the car that I would use in a recipe later.

It occurs to me that most happiness moments are triggered not by something like winning the lottery, although that could go a long way to make me ecstatic. No, lots of happy moments come from things like picturing a book on a shelf with your name on it or feeling the sun on your face in January.