Happiness - What is it?

Motivated by Gretchen's 'Happiness Project' I decided to reflect on this notion of happiness.

Happiness has different meanings for people. Thinking on this topic, I am struck by a memory of a workshop I facilitated for Indigenous women of the Americas in the Peruvian jungle. One evening, sitting by the fire, the women were talking about their communities and how difficult it was for them to make it to the workshop. They spoke about the hardships they are faced with all through laughter and beaming as they spoke about their children. Earlier that day, I teased that I should wear a t-shirt that said, “I’d Rather be a Tourist” because clearly the facilities in the jungle are not the Hilton. Sitting among the women I felt ashamed for having that thought, even in jest.

As I read some of Gretchen’s 12 commandments to becoming happier, I got that most of the points, although universal, really are for people in developed countries whose concerns don't have to include the basics of survival. As an example I will use Gretchen's list, because I like it. The Peruvian example comes from one of the women at the the workshop.

American / Peruvian
1. Be yourself / 1. Be strong
2. Let it go. / 2. Be thankful with what you have
3. Act the way I want to feel. / 3. Accept that you can’t put yourself first
4. Do it now. / 4. Recognize your opportunities
5. Be polite and be fair. / 5. Be respectful but strong
6. Enjoy the process. / 6. Live in the moment / let each moment follow
7. Spend out. / 7. Treasure what you have
8. Identify the problem. / 8. Identify the solutions
9. Lighten up. / 9. Laugh, and laugh some more
10. Do what ought to be done. / 10. Do what can be done
11. No calculation. / 11. Appraise risks
12. There is only love. / 12. There is only one ‘you’

Happiness is relative, fleeting, but necessary for our body's emotional and spiritual well-being no matter who we are. The important thing to remember is that pure happiness lives within each of us.

Fresh Green Onions brings me to Tears

Satisfaction! My first harvests from my small but loved garden are green onions picked by my eleven-year-old son. I hate to admit that I’ve never experienced this type of satisfaction, a satisfaction that comes from knowing. Knowing that, I and I alone (besides my gardener who I affectionately call ‘Mother Nature’ and my 11 year old son, who is a gardener in the making) are responsible for these fresh, scented onions.

Everything about them is pure joy, arousing all the senses. With a vibrant green color it is the picture of health. To the touch they are firm and cool, smelling like sweet sunshine but the taste is out of this world.

I'm inspired to make a salad, during which I rubbed my eye after slicing them and my eyes were awash in tears.

Francesco De Gregori - Buonanotte fiorellino

I can't understand Italian but I get this is a beautiful song! The internet is wonderful! I found this translation...

What kind of Twitter Bug am I?

On February 1, 2009 I wrote “How Many Friends Do we Need Anyway” the subject is on social networks. At that writing, I was new to Twitter and pondering what part this new tool would play in my life.

I found that people use twitter for a variety of reasons including but not limited to promoting websites, to sell products, to connect with like-minded people, and to spout out random bits of information. This is all good. I like that we live in a society that allows people have the freedom to express and be involve in this media in whatever way they feel comfortable.

Moreover, I like that I can pick and choose who follow my tweets. Generally the people I allow to following my tweets are people who I would in “real life” like to meet. What I am looking for in their tweets is authenticity and something that reveals a bit about them. I also like to read tweets that provide links that lead me to subjects that interests me. Although, I have been known to pick a random person because of something they have posted and follow that for a bit just to see what type of pearl they may expose.

I am less concerned about how many followers I have but rather how many people I can have conversations with that relate to our shared interest. I see my tweets as links connecting a conversation that happen overtime, and my intent is to have these conversations as though we are sitting across from each other drinking tea.

"Dance Me To The End of Love" Leonard Cohen

He came out skipping onto the stage and into our hearts. I mean, literally skipping, like a child at the playground. If you were sitting close enough (we were), you could see the glint of mischief in his eyes. "Dance Me to the End of Love" was his first song of the evening, and we all followed him to the end...

May 26, 2009, at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Leonard Cohen, poet, singer, and former Buddhist monk gave a most spectacular three hour concert to an enthusiast crowd. Clearly, the fans adore him. From the minute he skipped onto the stage he owned the crowd. They sprang unto their feet giving him his first of many standing ovations of the night. And the fans were not shy about showering him with adulation, sprinkling the brief periods of silence between numbers with "I love you, Leonard!" He responded, "I love you, too!"

Everything about his performance was designed to entertain, and he did not disappoint. I especially loved his fedora hat, which throughout the evening he removed to give respect to the fans and his band. His band included Javier Mas on bandurria and laud, Dino Soldo on winds, guitarist Bob Metzger, Rafael Gayol on drums, Neil Larson on keyboards, bassist Roscoe Beck and, a long-time collaborator Sharon Robinson and the Webb Sisters - introducing them as his singing “angels”.

I am a relatively new fan compared to some of the fans who attended the concert. I spoke to a lady who followed the tour and saw 24 concerts so far all over Europe and Canada. She has tickets to see his 75th birthday show in Spain this fall. She confided that her husband understood that he came second to Leonard as she confessed that she has been 'in love' with him (Leonard) for forty years. Now that is a fan! He ended, with Closing Time, though no one wanted it to end.

My husband, Alan, loves Leonard too. How much, well he would have to tell you himself.

Alan's comments:

Like many Canadians I became aware of Leonard Cohen in the early 1960's as a popular poet and writer of sophisticated and sometimes erotic novels. Reading his novels was a real risque thing to do back then, especially if you were 14 or 15 years old!

In about 1966 I saw a clip from a documentary showing him singing and playing guitar at a party. I am not sure, but it might have been the Stranger Song that he was singing. In 1967 his first album came out. He had already been made famous as a songwriter when his song Suzanne became a hit by one Noel Harrison. "Who?" you might ask. He was the son of Rex Harrison of My Fair Lady and Dr. Doolittle. Suzanne was probably his only hit.

The first Leonard Cohen album was a revelation to my 16 year old ears. Sophisticated, worldly, funny in places, his rather dull singing voice giving his words all the room they needed to sparkle. He sang about love, saying goodbye, strangers, sisters of mercy. The back cover of his album had a picture of Joan of Arc engulfed in flames. It was like nothing else I had heard. The arrangements were spare, with backing female vocals that became one of his sonic trademarks. I taught myself the rudiments of fingerpicking from his guitar playing.

The second album came along, "Songs from a Room." Not quite as good, but still very good with songs like Bird on the Wire (likely the only Cohen song I have ever been made sick of through overexposure, although Hallelujah is getting there) and The Partisan. Then "Songs of Love and Hate," containing some of my favorites, like The Avalanche and Famous Blue Raincoat.

After that, Leonard and I parted ways for a while. In fact it was not until First We Take Manhattan that he came back on my personal radar. By the time of The Future in the early 1990s he became again as important to me as he was in my teens. Now he was even more worldly, and his humour even more prominent, especially in songs like Democracy: "Democracy is coming to the U.S.A."

Since then I have avidly listened to everything he puts out, and as he ages his lyrics are somehow simpler, less overtly literary but deeper, more heartfelt and somehow closer to my heart as I too get older. He has modernized his sound through collaborations with musicians like Sharon Robinson, but those female voices are always there in the mix, a crowd of angels that follow him through his career as a singer. He remains utterly relevant, his musical and lyrical output a gift to the rest of us.

I am sure that if he had not been defrauded of his life savings he would not be on his current non-stop worldwide tour. He would perhaps have gone back to his mountain in California to practice Zen or gone home to Montreal to enjoy his old age. Instead he has been forced to put together a stage show, and what a show it is! He would never had experienced the outpouring of love that showers him every night on stage, and might never have known how much he has meant to so many.

As for me, seeing Leonard Cohen live was to see a great personal hero. It was to hear from the master's lips the sardonic, witty, deep words that he has set to music. It was to see him interact with his musical collaborators, mostly much, much younger than him, and it was to see a man seemingly surprised at his own skill on the stage. I wanted to yell out all that I was feeling as I watched the 74-year-old version of my teenage hero perform his songs, old and new. I clapped until my hands were sore.

He might have been forced into touring because of financial pressures, but onstage he is generous, humble and lovable. He is a master not only of writing but of living.

I would not have missed it for the world.

Every Tea Drinker Needs...

a cool tea pot, this one is called sorapot, which I received for Mother's Day.

I am one blessed mom!

Life's Small Pleasures

Tasty fragments of life provides pleasurable moments. String them together to create a memorable day. Collect as many as you wish.