...giving thanks...

"There are many things I am thankful for

I can find them near and far.

There are many things I am thankful for.

Let me tell you what they are,

I'm thankful for the earth

I'm thankful for the sea

I'm thankful for my friends

and I'm thankful to be me.

I'm thankful for the sun

I'm thankful for each tree

I'm thankful for my home

and I'm thankful to be me.

I'm thankful for my food

I'm thankful to be free

I'm thankful for the stars

and I'm thankful to be me."

--"There are many things I am thankful for" by Hap Palmer

The words are simple.  The feelings uncomplicated.  Sung by the sweet voices of K-3 graders the emotion is palpable and cannot fail to touch that place in your heart that yearns for the simple joy that comes when you are just "thankful to be me".

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

...parrots...

6:30 am.  Sleeping.  Suddenly awake!  Loud screeching coming from the sky.  Parrots!

I am lucky enough to live in an area frequented by a very large group of WILD PARROTS.  I don't mean the ones I have living in my family room (even though they do act wild).  I mean wild urban parrots.  During this time of the year they fly over my house at around 6:30 am and play around in the trees all day until they fly off somewhere to the northwest to wherever they are roosting right now.  Wow, they are beautiful to see in flight...and funny to watch playing in the trees or on the wires above.  When we have loquats on our tree they like to sit in the tree and eat them, which is fine with me otherwise they all go to waste.  But, they are loud.  This is an important part of being a parrot, especially a wild parrot.  They live in pairs and family groups that, generally, stick together.  So, when they fly they are constantly calling to keep check on each other or to warn of dangers.  Living with a couple of parrots it is amazing to me how many different sounds they are capable of.  (Having a bird tell you "I love you" will have to be a post for another day. )  

Now, I know that this moment may not be one that would bring happiness to everyone's life. Some people may find the parrots downright annoying.  So, I guess this is a good time to talk about perspective.  Obviously, I am a bird person.  So, seeing these beautiful intelligent creatures flying free and thriving where they were never meant to be brings me running out of my house to watch them whenever they fly over.  However, others may be pretty annoyed during the 6:30 am fly-over when they are trying to get that last half-hour of sleep.  

So, I guess the point is that although this is my list of moments that bring me happiness, you should reflect upon the things that you run into every day that keep you moving forward. And remember, we are trying to look through that glass half full.  Maybe you can find something joyful that you never thought of in that way before...even at 6:30 am.   

Click here for more info on California's wild parrots.

...Eleanor Powell and Fred Astaire...

She was called "the world's greatest tap-dancer" and many thought she could out tap Fred.  This "Begin the Beguine" number from Broadway Melody of 1940 is considered one of the best tap numbers ever.  Enjoy.

Happy Birthday, Eleanor!  

(for better viewing, scroll down and pause my regular music at the bottom of the page)  :)

...the Sun...

Recently the sun went missing for a couple of days.  As I was reflecting on how its departure made me feel I had a memory.  When my little ones were really little I would walk them home from school.  On really nice warm days before we went into the house, we would lay on the grass on the front lawn and just soak up the sun for a few minutes.  I don't know what the neighbors thought, but I remember it felt so nice and calming and it was a good transition between school and home.

I have always loved the sun.  Give me a day at the beach anytime.  I have found that getting outside and doing something, anything, will shine up the day for me.  Instead of running from house to car to building on a sunny day, stop...close your eyes...and just feel it for a minute.  I promise it will help.

I have been using the word comfort in my prayers a lot lately and was thinking about other words that could mean the same thing.  A word that popped into my head was "solace".  It is a similar word to comfort, although I think it leans more toward "peace".  I don't know much about the etymology for "solace", but it just does not seem coincidental that a word which means peace and comfort begins with the word for sun...sol.

...some really lovely writing...

"One of the strange things about living in the world is that it is only now and then one is quite sure one is going to live forever and ever and ever.  One knows it sometimes when one gets up at the tender solemn dawn-time and goes out and stands alone and throws one's head far back and looks up and up and watches the pale sky slowly changing and flushing and marvelous unknown things happening until the East almost makes one cry out and one's heart stands still at the strange unchanging majesty of the rising of the sun - which has been happening every morning for thousands and thousands and thousands of years.  One knows it then for a moment or so. 

And one knows it sometimes when one stands by oneself in a wood at sunset and the mysterious deep gold stillness slanting through and under the branches seems to be saying slowly again and again something one cannot quite hear, however much one tries.

Then sometimes the immense quiet of the dark blue at night with millions of stars waiting and watching makes one sure; and sometimes a sound of far-off music makes it true; and sometimes a look in some one's eyes."

--Frances Hodgson Burnett, "The Secret Garden"

...finding "The Wizard of Oz" while channel surfing...

"ha ha ha

ho ho ho

and a couple of tra la las

that's how we laugh the day away

in the merry old land of OZ"

...happened upon the scene where they are getting ready to see the Wizard.  Something about this scene always made it one of my favorites.  They curl Dorothy's and the Lion's hair, they polish up the Tin Man, and stuff the Scarecrow with fresh hay.  And something about the green used in this scene makes it the sparkliest green I've ever seen.

I can remember when I was little finding some of this movie unsettling.  I wasn't really sure if I actually liked it.  But, I watched it every year and somehow, back then when you didn't see your favorite movies repeated very often, something was magical about it when it came on t.v.  

Thanks to that magic, I'll happily stop by in the merry old land of OZ, even for a short visit... 

Moments

Welcome to my blog.

I've decided that my blog should have a theme.  I guess I'm just a put things in boxes kind of girl. Therefore, a theme.  I chose one of my favorite words...felicity.  Although summarized by most as happiness, to me it contains a particular form of happiness.

Happy is too broad, joy is too bursting.  I prefer the calm, meditative reassurance of felicity.  I also appreciate its second definition in this literary application, "the ability to find appropriate expression for one's thoughts".

Marianne Dashwood gushes to her sister,"Is there a felicity in the world superior to this?".   However Marianne tends toward over-indulgence in her sensibilities.  Such passionate souls, as she remarks herself, often meet with tragic ends.  I will borrow Marianne's word with less passion, more positive reinforcement.

Here's what I mean...

I have spent a lot of my first forty years waiting, hoping, and expecting a feeling of constant happiness..."Do I feel happy today, or not?"  I admit I have seen the glass half empty, believing that someday it would be filled. 

But in those years there were moments.  

Moments when I would look at where I was, in the moment I was, and in that moment...I felt felicity.  I am slowly coming to realize that I didn't need to find or make the moments, I just need to recognize that they are always there.

And so my blog is one for moments of felicity.....lots, and lots, and lots of them.