Ah, is this not happiness..

You arrive home and discover that those nearly ripe strawberries have suddenly dissappeared. The finding of a pinkish red bird dropping right next to the plant points to the criminal.
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Ah, is this not happiness..
 
Haha, that's awesome.

For me, today, it's organic hot dogs with the condiments spooned on with abandon. It makes me happy. All of the fatty, salty goodness of a hot dog, but you don't have to worry about what goes into it because it's organic.

I know it's silly (ahem, false), but is it not happiness?
 
Huge red poppies the size of tea cups opening just outside my window.
A punnet of sun warmed strawberries on the kitchen table.
A hot, hot shower with the radio on.
Ah, is this not happiness....

there is something amazingly cheerful and uplifting about poppies isn't there? I found myself smiling at their sight yesterday also!
 
Just have to add three more from this morning to this inspirational thread.
Steam rising from a freshly poured cup of coffee.
An unseen blackbird singing in my rainy garden.
A tiny, soft grey feather floating gently down from a startled wood pigeon.
Ah, is this not happiness...
 
This picture made me smile. I grew up in the deepest countryside and was usually on the other side of the windscreen, helping to get the cows across.It reminded me that one of my favourite things as a child was to lie in bed at night and hear the cows outside and their heavy but gentle huffing and puffing breathing through the open window.
 
I am working with Dr. Eric Sherman, coauthor of Pathways to Pain Relief, to make a new wiki page about the Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale (see pages 26-28 of Mindbody Prescription or click this link for a description) . Thinking I was calling a customer service number, I eventually found myself inadvertently calling the number of Dr. Rahe's personal phone number. When my call was sent to voice mail, I bashfully hung up, feeling a bit guilty for disturbing the famous researcher on independence day.

.... and then my phone rang. A woman was on the other end, asking if I had called. It was Dr. Rahe's wife! She gracefully explained that Dr. Rahe was out playing a July 4 game of golf, but that he'd be happy to answer my question when he got back. I explained that I just had a couple of questions about the products on his web site, and she said that he would be happy to answer them.

So I got a chance to speak with Dr. Rahe for maybe 15 minutes. :) I was able to tell him a little bit about our nonprofit and ask about his recent work. I purchased his newest book, Paths to Health and Resilience, which looks like a simple and easy to read review of the research he has done since working on his famous stress scale.

I really like gentle, thoughtful, kind and wise old doctors. They inspire me. It is inspiring how he has devoted his life's work to the science of the mind-body connect and to helping people manage stress. The fact that he took 15 minutes to talk to me on a holiday makes the world just seem that much of a better place, if only ever so slightly.

Dr. Holmes and Dr. Rahe published their first paper on the stress scale in 1967. After that, Dr. Rahe worked for 20 years as a research psychiatrist for the US navy. He went on to teach psychiatry at the University of Nevada. After retiring from his teaching job, for the last 15 years, he has been working at Veteran's Affairs. Presumably, he has been helping veterans deal with stress from their years of service to our nation. I'm inspired that even at his age, he is still helping people, writing quality material and even putting up web sites.

Being reminded that the world is full of wonderful and inspiring people and having the opportunity to speak with one of them.... a little bit of happiness...

PS
If you are interested in Dr. Rahe's book, Paths to Healing and Resilience, it's available on his website, www.drrahe.com (under products) and from Amazon. It looks like a relatively short, easy read that offers a systematic review of how to see where one's stress is coming from. The following is Dr. Rahe's bio from when he received the Hans Selye award from the American Institute of Stress. Hans Selye is one of the fathers of Stress Science.
http://www.stress.org/richard-h-rahe-m-d/

PPS
Dr. Rahe includes a gallery of photos of japanese gardens on his web site. I suspect he took them himself. I'll close with a couple of them in keeping with the theme of this thread. You can see the entire collection by clicking here.

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Discovering another thief of strawberries...

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Forest, I am always amazed about how peaceful japanese gardens are. It's almost as if they need them, as showing emotions in Japan is still not done... the japan way of lowering stress and strain.. (?)
 
Well, that little critter looks like he's found a meal he should be very excited about. :)

Here are some critters that added to my day just yesterday. I was off doing an errand and took the following video while riding back through a park.

I always feel a sense of connection when I see the geese. It started when a girlfriend and I decided to take up running. Every-day, it seemed like there was a flock of geese in the middle of the track that we jogged around. I used to chase after them a little bit to make my girlfriend laugh. I started developing knee pain when I ran and even though I stopped running almost immediately, the pain stayed with me for a year or more. During which time my relationship with the girlfriend slowly fell apart, partially due to the strain I was under from my upper extremity TMS. When I finally accepted the TMS diagnosis, the knee pain was one of the first things to go.

In hindsight, the connection between the relationship and the knee pain seems pretty obvious. I still feel a connection to Boston Geese, though. It's like they are friends, just waiting to greet me.

I'm amazed that these geese didn't fly away with me coming so close. Maybe word got out in goose social circles that I'm all bark and no bite. :)

The geese weren't completely unperturbable, though. This happy little puppy had his curiousity rewarded with a loud honk that I unfortunately didn't catch in the video:​
(if it looks like I'm hovering in a spaceship, it's because YouTube stabilized the image for me.)​

Hanging out with the geese....
ah, is this not happiness?
 
Hearing my parents talk with joy and laughter about their first car... I understand why :)

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today I saw a young girl driving by in my first car, with this I mean it was really my car because it had the same registration... I loved that car, a red VW Polo. You always remember your first car and think back about it with feelings of nostalgia.

ah, is this not happiness..
 
Forest Pictures from Dr. Rahe's book, Paths to Healing and Resilience---

[/quote] Forest-
Dr. Rahe includes a gallery of photos of japanese gardens on his web site. I suspect he took them himself. I'll close with a couple of them in keeping with the theme of this thread. You can see the entire collection by clicking here.

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[Eric]- Wow Forest I didn't even have to do a meditation, these pictures took me into the garden of peace-
its an awesome display of hope and comfort- thanks forest and thank you Dr. Rahe for the stress relieving colors of serenity
 
I have to share my LOL moment. When I first came upon this thread, I read it as "this is not happiness" and thought people were going for irony!!!
You know, I try to laugh each day, and I must say, I provide myself with lots of opportunities!!!!
Don't know who first said it, but the old saying is that "If you can laugh at yourself, you'll never run short of material."
 
Forest Pictures from Dr. Rahe's book, Paths to Healing and Resilience---
Forest-
Dr. Rahe includes a gallery of photos of japanese gardens on his web site. I suspect he took them himself. I'll close with a couple of them in keeping with the theme of this thread. You can see the entire collection by clicking here.

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[Eric]- Wow Forest I didn't even have to do a meditation, these pictures took me into the garden of peace-
its an awesome display of hope and comfort- thanks forest and thank you Dr. Rahe for the stress relieving colors of serenity[/quote]
The third photo reminds me of an Escher print called Three Worlds. I had a print of it on my wall in college--geologic time ago!!
 
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