Learning Happiness

“An early morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.”

~ Henry David Thoreau

I’ve been thinking a lot about getting back to blogging on Learning Happiness. I’ve sidetracked myself a lot in the recent (and not so recent) past. Yet I still have a passion for the topic and a belief that most people need a whole lot more reasons (or maybe just reminders) to be happy, so here I am.

In the middle of a global pandemic, finding little reasons to be happy can be more challenging than it used to be. Yet because the threat of a deadly virus is so real, I’m finding that each day when I get up, I feel grateful that I got to experience one more day.

I’m still alive.

For this moment in time, I’m still well.

I Love Mornings

Early every morning, I walk my dog. I get such a sense of being centered with the world during this walk that I think I would take an early morning walk even if I didn’t have a dog, although I have to admit that some days I whine about having to go.

For me my morning walk is usually a quiet, spiritual time, inhaling the freshness of a new day, listening to the happy singing of birds. The dew on the grass offers refreshment and regeneration. The air is fresh and clean.

The world has been reborn.

If I listen hard, I can hear a variety of birds, some loud, some soft, some screeching, some lilting, some melodic. Their voices are excited and alive. They too are aware of what a great gift it is to awaken again.

To get up in the morning is to know that there is something that needs to be done today.

 As James Russell Lowell said, “Thank God every morning when you get up that you have something to do that day that must be done, whether you like it or not.”

For me, morning is the time of my highest energy. I am in tune with nature, conscious of the renewal of life and a chance to try again.

Everything I did wrong yesterday can be re-attempted today. I might fall on my face again, but I get one more chance to try to do better.

When life has seemed overwhelming the night before, after sleeping on it, a lot of times things don’t look so bad.

In the morning, my energy and courage are renewed. I can see possibilities that I couldn’t see the previous night.

I think mornings are about possibilities. As Monica Baldwin said, “The moment when you first wake up in the morning is the most wonderful of the twenty-four hours. No matter how weary or dreary you may feel, you possess the certainty that, during the day that lies before you, absolutely anything may happen. And the fact that it practically always doesn’t, matters not a jot. The possibility is always there.”

It’s a brand new day. Cherish and enjoy it.