Happiness Is:

Remember how much mother loved the Love Is cartoons. I think she collected all of them over the years, relating and laughing and sighing. Well, in the Spirit of Maxine, Happiness Is:

Grandsons smiling when you walk into their day care. Sisters.
The luxurious feel of Roger's new made from scratch office table.
Ian driving me to the store and hauling in and putting away all the Tuesday groceries.

Book club.
A three birthday book club with red velvet cupcakes, fancy cheeses, crackers, and chocolate bars. Happy birthday Mary, Lynn, and Sandy. Happiness is Mary planning an Oscar watch party with ballots and fancy dress. Happiness is Lynn completing her forty days of spiritual meditations. Sandy scoring Olympic tickets for a hockey game in Vancouver. Kathleen sharing troubles.

Happiness is all the big and little things that sift between all the dreadful things that continue to invade our lives. Happiness is blueberry muffins. New shoes. A really good movie. A great book. A silly cartoon. Health. A full tank of gas when you need it. A glimpse of the splendor of the mountains or prairie when you need it.

Happiness is anticipating a whale watching weekend with family. Happiness is family. Happiness is family even when they are toting hoses and walkers and cpap machines. Happiness is spotting whales. A bottle of semi-good wine. A fabulous shampoo whether it be from Trader Joe's or LUSH.

Happiness is winning or losing with grace. Experiencing fortitude, tenacity, being safe out of a storm. Hearty soup. Squash. Valentine weekends away from the kiddos. The kiddos. The cousins. The colleagues. The friends. Work. Pleasure. A pretty good life. A good death, thank you mother for that one.

And did I mention grandsons smiling when you go to pick them up at the day care center.

In the Spirit of Maxine, happiness is all the tiny points of light in our lives. Thank you mother, thank you life, and thank you for being a not so tiny point of light in my life.