Fifty Things That Make Me Happy

My friend Frederick with FredtotheRick blog has challenged all of his followers (me being one) to write a post about fifty things that make us happy.

I am accepting his challenge and extending this challenge to all my followers: Write a blog post about “Fifty Things That Make You Happy.”

1. When I get to sleep as long as I need to sleep to feel completely rested.

2. When it rains and I don’t have to water my outdoor plants.

3. When I get a package in the mail and it being properly delivered.

4. Retirement.

5. Freedom.

6. When everything in my life is peaceful and calm (no drama).

7. Enjoying cups of hot coffee each morning. Mmmm…

8. Knowing I will skip number 8 just because I can.

9. Drinking a coke.

10. Watching my hummingbirds.

11. Knowing my hummingbirds are comfortable with me being around them.

12. Feeling safe and protected.

13. My country (even though it is sometimes dysfunctional).

14. Listening to beautiful soothing music.

15. Being in the mountains with the fresh mountain air.

16. Being around animals.

17. My little dog, Bria.

18. Having a clean conscience.

19. Finally being able to get something I have wanted for a long long time.

20. When a long lost friends returns.

21. Beautiful sunny days when it is neither too hot or too cold.

22. All my friends on WordPress.

23. All my friends.

24. Going out for breakfast.

25. Peace of mind

26. Having all those “hard” years behind me.

27. Those “aha” moments.

28. A really good book

29. A really good movie.

30. Visiting my kids and grandkids

31. Writing flash fiction

32. Hummingbirds (Did I say hummingbirds?)I love hummingbirds

33. Learning something new

34. Learning something new to improve my blog

35. My blogging friends

36. Ice Cream

37. Saying the same thing twice because I can.

38. Freedom (saying Freedom twice because it is so high value).

39. A very nice delicious dinner that someone else cooked.

40. Spring

41. That moment when you know winter is over.

42. A nice comfortable bed.

43. A nice ‘down’ pillow.

44. Talking to my family.

45. My children and grandchildren!

46. Making new blogging friends.

47. Making new friends.

48. Bright pretty flowers.

49. My Lilac bushes when they bloom.

50. Just because there is a lot to be happy about.

51. Funny jokes.

 

HappyHappy JoyJoy

In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Happy Happy Joy Joy.”

The last time I cried tears of joy? Frankly, I don’t usually cry tears of joy, with the exception of the birth of my children. Those tears came each time I held my beautiful and healthy new baby in my arms. They were tears of joy mixed with tears of relief (the painful labor was over) and the wonderful result was lying in my arms.

I do remember crying tears of joy and relief when I realized the severe depression and paranoia I had been suffering with for years had finally lifted and I could, in fact, feel joy again. My depression had slowly consumed me. It felt as though I was in a pit and suddenly the bottom fell out.

I will never take feeling joy for granted. Not after what I went through. For a very long time I felt that I would never smile again, much less feel joy again.

Many people do not realize that those who suffer severe depression do not have the control to shut it off at their own will. It consumes you and takes control. It does not allow you to “just turn it off.” Particularly if it is caused by a chemical imbalance. In order to overcome it, it takes an enormous amount of work and the correct medication. I believe doctors have become better trained for mental illness and chemical imbalances and that medications have evolved to produce much more satisfying results than they did in years past.

This post is suppose to be about joy and not depression. But, how do you know what joy feels like if you do not also know the pain of sadness?

I can safely say, without a doubt, that true joy is priceless.

To each person reading this, I wish you a very Happy New Year and I wish you the best of everything wonderful.

Peace, Love, JOY and Hugs

PJ

One of Those Days

Sometimes it isn't easy to fight against all the negativity that has come our way in our lifetime. There are days that all that negativity in my life bans together to gang up on me. Today is one of those days.

Do you ever feel like all the harsh words and wrongful deeds ever done to you and all the mistakes that you have made in the past, are all tumbling down on top of you? It sure feels like that to me today. I keep hearing all these negative and hurtful things being said to me and seeing all the mistakes that I have made.

I REFUSE TO LISTEN TO THOSE NEGATIVE THOUGHTS!

Instead, I am allowing the sonshine to fill up my beautiful and tortured soul.

Picture from Pinterest. (Thank you Pinterest).

 

Posted with Blogsy

Long Childbirth and a Happy Ending

When I was pregnant with my son, we lived in a very tiny town in eastern Colorado. This small community was actually very spread out because it consisted of many farmers and ranchers and their large families. The town had a very small hospital and only one physician.

When it was time from my son to be delivered, my husband took me to the hospital. Although my labor pains were not “hard” at that time, as soon as they broke my water, they became severe. The first 5 hours of labor were fairly easy and I felt, “Great! This will be a breeze!” (I spoke too soon). The next 24 hours were excruciating! In the middle of the night, the nurses took me into the delivery room and had me pushing for two hours. As soon as they took me back to my room, they called my doctor. He came rushing to the hospital furious with the nurses for doing this. I was in so much pain and was completely exhausted from all the pushing with no results.

As I struggled on with my labor, I watched my husband being fed “T-bone” steaks from the hospital staff. (All I was allowed was ice chips and jello).

They were giving me injections for pain, but that didn't give me any relief at all.

After almost two days of hard labor, they took me to X-Ray to see what was keeping my baby from being born. Apparently, I had an extra curve in my pelvis. My labor pains were so intense, I was really really struggling, both physically and emotionally.

After being in intense labor and severe pain for over three days, my husband finally told my doctor, if this baby isn't delivered in the next two hours, I demand you to do a C-section. (He had been asking for a C-section for me prior to this). The doctor kept telling him he did not want to do a C-section because if I gave birth naturally, I would be able to give birth naturally to any future babies. “What?!” (Honestly, the only reason I lasted that long was because I had no other choice). Apparently, this was the mindset in a county that is almost all farmers and ranchers with large families.

Three days and seven hours later, with the help of forcepts, our son was born. After the whole delivery process was complete, the feeling I had was PURE BLISS. Thankfully, my baby was healthy and the long birth did not affect him, however, it did affect me. It took me months to recover from that long delivery and I started having panic attacks and anxiety issues.

Inspite of an excruciatingly painful long labor, I had a perfect, healthy, baby. He was born one day before Mother's Day.

At that time, women and babies were kept in the hospital for almost a week. During the time of my hospitalization, the hospital gave my husand and I a “candlight T-Bone steak dinner with wine” in a room by ourselves.

The Daily Post for today is “Happy Endings“. I thought of this experience and couldn't think of a happier ending than having a beautiful healthy baby. (The candlight steak dinner and wine was just secondary).

 

Happy Happy Joy Joy

The happiness and joy of a baby or small child is picture perfect of the essence of joy. Their innocence absolutely captures the embodiment of joy. Their joy isn't marred by the questions of “what ifs” or of the emotions that we all learn as we journey through our lives. Their joy is sheer unadulterated joy. Beautiful priceless joy.

Jesus Christ taught us that we must be “born again” in order to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven.

Does this mean we must become “like” little babies?

I believe he means we must shed our past and ours sins through baptism and live our lives encased in His joy, the joy of Jesus Christ and the Grace of God. By doing so, we become like little children inasmuch as our joy is unadulterated and complete.

I don't believe it is possible to live on this earth and not have troubles, even if we are born again Christians. But I do believe it is possible to “turn our troubles over to The Lord” and be free of their burden upon us. This isn't easy to do. It takes a whole lot of faith. But faith is what Jesus Christ asks of us.

Babies are joyous because they have faith in their mother. They know she is going to take care of all of her/his needs and love her/him unconditionally. They are not burdened with the fears that we adults learn to have during the journey of our lives. They are not wounded by mistakes and wrong choices. (This of course does not include babies who are abused or neglected).

I wish we all could experience joy in the same way that babies experience it. I wish we all could shed those fears and learned behaviors that affect our happiness.

I wish we all could be like little children living in a world where there were no evil, no fear, and no learned behaviors that rob us of our sweet priceless innocent joy.

I wish we all could sit down together and have cookies and milk.

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Daily Prompt: Happy Happy Joy Joy

Photo Credit: Sean Dreilinger

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