Just Happy

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In writing the title of this post I'm beginning to wonder if I use "just" too much.  Yeah.  I think I am.  I remember now having to go through papers I write looking for repetitive "just"'s.  I'll need to add that to the docket of things to improve on.

But right now, I am just happy.  :-)

You know how there are times when you are in a funk and you really don't know why but everything in life looks grim and your outlook on the future is dismal?  I do have those, but I also get these times when I really just love life.  I could be doing anything and still feel a general sense of pleasure in who I am and a contentment with my lot in life.  Like yesterday, I sat down to put my shoes on and just loved the fact that I am who I am; the kind of person who wears stripey socks and red convers.  Driving in the car, I get a whiff of the summertime that is really almost here (I hope!) and life just strikes me as supremely enjoyable.  Little things, you know.

I used to think these happy times were more rare than my grumpier funks, but anymore I'm not sure that's true.  Discomfort is so much more noticeable than ease, and negative emotions are much more disruptive to my life than positive ones.  I'm pretty sure I've been having these cheerful episodes several times a year without realizing it.  I think I have been percieving the good times as what life "should" be, and bemoaning the bad times because things were going "wrong" in my life. 

Hmmm.  There's something wrong with that.  When did I get so arrogant as to think that I deserved happiness and sunshine all the days of my life?  I've complained about the things in my life I'm not extatic about, and merely accepted the good things I have as my due.  How have I not at least been noticing the good stuff as well as the bad?  Well, I'm noticing it now.  My life is good.  Dang good. And I am happy.

Illustration: I have a wonderful family.  I am blessed to be connected by blood with the best group of people I know; and by marriage to choice, "salty", step-families I couldn't imagine my life without.  I just love these people.  A bunch of us got together last Saturday to commemorate Biz's baptism.  The weather was gorgeous, we had food, and dessert, and lazy conversations while all the grandkids played around the yard.

Couldn't imagine a better way to spend my weekend.

All the grandkids on the Weight/Ricks side but one.  Kirsten couldn't be there 'cause she was hanging out with her boyfriend :)