It's All In The Making

Health and happiness

Green grass and sunshine

Cool breezes and birdsong

Bare feet in warm sand

Kicking through autumn leaves

Crisp air and hot soup

Snow angels and skating 

Frosted trees and blue sky

Bare branches wave softly

Spring gauze of green leaves

Ice cream and sprinkles

Walking in the park

Laughing and talking

Movies and books.

Writing and painting

Designing and shaping

Moments of goodness

Health and happiness

“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”

~ Confucious

Soap Bubbles ~ 2

Happiness made easy is 

never really happiness. 

Happiness always comes 

as a surprise, at least for 

me. Like bubbles that 

sprout from those little 

plastic toys dipped in 

soapy water. To be very 

cynical, when happiness 

lands on your nose or an 

autumn leaf, it bursts. But the 

best thing? Dipping the toy 

in soapy water again blowing

a breath of life gently at the 

iridescent film to make more.

“Happiness is not something ready-made.  

It comes from your own actions.”

~ Dalai Lama

Simple but not Easy

Going into…

Rooting out…..

Openings for….

Wisdom does not…..

Temptation to….

Happiness made….

“As you start to walk on the way, the way appears.”

~ Rumi

Come Along

Inviting happiness along

does not require

idyllic circumstance

Inviting happiness along

does require willingness 

to come as you are.

Happiness is not something ready made. 

It comes from your own actions.”

~ Dalai Lama XIV

There are Mornings

There are mornings

when the glow of happiness 

seems dimmed

Like bright sunlight 

shaded by thin cloud

but still burning

As the sun rises

gratitude opens the sky

to freshen the day.

“The heart that gives thanks is a happy one, for we 

cannot feel thankful and unhappy at the same time.”

~ Douglas Wood

On An Afternoon Walk ~ Art Installation

Warm sun, calm waters

trees leafed out and lovely

when out of the sunlight

a colourful art installation

encourages us to always be happy.

“The race of children possesses magically sagacious powers.”

~ Gail Godwin, novelist and short story writer

Something is Everything

Something sounds so vague and,

like a lump of clay, needs shaping 

into whatever brings happiness or 

is just pleasing to the eye and ear. 

Something ~ left alone and ignored will

dry up, and in the distance of time, loses meaning and substance.

Something is like the fence for

ivy that creeps with tiny feet;

a wall of stone with blossoms frothing from cracks and crevices, or links of wire for blackberries that ripen, cling and climb.

Something is a cloud in the sky 

looking up, there are

rabbits, dragons or only a cloud 

stretched across the horizon.

Something is a tree named elm or oak

until a passerby says hello and pats 

its gnarly trunk imbuing it with 

the personality of a friendly guardian 

granting us shade from the hot sun or 

blessing the ground with pink ‘snow’ at blossom time.

Something is a vehicle by land, sea or air that 

whisks us away to where ever we want to go 

~ in a meander down a country lane to see what we can see,

past fields of heavy headed grain, herds of cattle, or flocks of sheep

or travels to other lands to see castles, windmills and history. 

We are all somethings among the rocks, trees and animals 

and when something joins us all together that 

we can cherish or dismiss or worse yet, ignore 

when something disastrous happens, 

our precious somethings crumble to ash and darkness.

I prefer my something to be

bright, warm and all around me so 

I can see, hear and touch 

somethings that are 

glorious or maybe just nice.

“You are the silence between the notes. The white space between 

the letters. The missing that makes everything else a something.”

~ pleasefindthis (pen name of Iain S. Thomas),

I Wrote this for you: Just the Words

Before

Links in a chain

Of daisies or dandelions

A privilege of childhood

Before daisies are just flowers

And dandelions are weeds

“One of the first conditions of happiness is that 

the link between Man and Nature shall not be broken.”

~ Leo Tolstoy

Sharing Summer Sun

Enchanting flowers nourished by rich soil share the energy of the summer sun with tourists who click, roam and wander happily stopping for lemonade or ice cream before wandering on to the next sight to see.

“I like tourists. I think it’s nice to live in a town

 that people come from all over to visit.”

~ David Thewlis, English actor

The Day After

John Hendry Park, Vancouver, BC

The day after Thanksgiving 

eating leftovers from the fridge, tidying cutlery and glasses, taking out garbage and recycling

quiet and reflective with

an open air motorcycle ride 

a crackling fire and a movie with pillows and a blanket

a stroll around Trout Lake

warm sunshine filtering through maples, cherry, spruce and oak, weeping willows and birch trees with gentle focus, we are grateful and happy.

“The most fortunate are those who have a wonderful capacity

 to appreciate again and again, freshly and naively, the basic 

goods of life with awe pleasure, wonder and even ecstasy.”

~ Abraham H. Maslow

Author's note: Edited February 17, 2024

Chancing Happiness

Happiness acts like 

a butterfly and even a bee 

To hover and dip 

flower to flower

seeking sweet nectar 

~ nourishment from the heart

“Happiness is not something ready made. 

It comes from your own actions.”

~ Dalai Lama XIV

Author's note: Edited February 07, 2024

Twilight

Sun slows and softens behind thickening gray sky,

islands quiet as we pass

 Guardians of silence

My face cool, damp and smiling.

“….that sanguine expectation of happiness which is happiness itself.”

~ Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility

The Artist

Yellow draws me into summer sunshine with sketches of sunflowers, yellow birds and daffodils sliding down hillsides

Yellow paints vast fields of flowering canola, domed by cloudless blue sky, calls birds, bees and butterflies to dine

Yellow sculpts deep shadows shapes of trees, bridges and sky scrapers texturing landscape of prairies or mountains

Yellow throws bright splashes
through windows with the swing of the sun
brushing aside curtains and shades

Yellow draws, for my heart and soul
a picture of joy and hope ~
a brilliant idea that makes me happy.

“In the world of safe hues, like black, red and white, 

yellow shouts:‘Look at me. I’m happy!’”

~ from Joy of Sewing, Chron,January 20, 2016

Happiness

Made by my recent host and sister, Kate Hersberger-Cheers

Apparently happiness is a choice. Chasing happiness is the goal, yet a spontaneous burst of happiness surprises me with no choice and no chase.

Each time I look at this marvellous sunflower, happiness flowers inside my heart and makes me smile
(Usually only babies have that effect on me.)

Sunflower has stayed at Kate’s but I’ve brought a photo with me!

“Our brightest blazes of gladness are 

commonly kindled by unexpected sparks.”

~ Samuel Johnson, The Idler; Poem

What's In the Box? - Writer's group for June

**This short piece, admittedly a bit more venting, is also our topic assignment for our writer's group from the phrase:  'What's in the box……….'   Not a particularly cheery piece. Other group members had us smiling and laughing!

What's In the Box?

So. What’s in the box? The box that holds my heart and soul? The box made up of rules and regulations created to foster the bottom line of dollars and cents where there seems to be no sense at all?  The box seems to get smaller, tighter and more sealed off everyday until, my beliefs begin to wink out, like candles caught with no oxygen to feed an ever weakening flame. 

What is in the box of habit and routine? Defensive, protective behaviours we each have created to be able to survive each system we work in, and those we live in.  It takes me back many years to earlier choices I have made. Choices I have made to leave bad situations and to be happy despite the many bumps on that journey. Today, however, I prefer to look differently, and with awareness, at my present situation and decide to stay within in it. To decide to be happy with my place and my voice. Accepting the things I cannot change has always been difficult for me when I have seen changes that seem so obvious to me. Changes that should be based on logic, common sense and compassion.

I did not come into nursing for dollars and cents. After all I was still a teenager at 17-going on-18 years of age. I’m 68 now, going on 69. Dollars and cents are necessary. Necessary for any of us to exist and to live on. The art, science and spirit of nursing is still what I believe in despite any monetary needs.

What is in the box? The box of schedules, rules and regulations…..and the bottom line? Each box nests within the other, squeezing the humanity out of society’s awareness of what is right. The humanity that has been stuffed inside, and willingly, so we can live with our dollars and cents. Too often we each forget that our beliefs, our common sense and our logic are not to be ignored.

“Without work, all life goes rotten, but when 

work is soulless, life stifles and dies.”

~ Albert Camus