How to Cross-Pollinate Happiness

“Doing what you must is duty; doing what you should is virtue; doing what you can is service; doing what you are afraid of is courage; doing what you like is freedom; liking what you do is happiness.” – Author Unknown

Are You Happy?

Are you doing what you like? Are you happy in your daily routine? Can you spin your “grind” into something happy and positive? Are you touching lives where ever you go?

We all have daily chores, routines, duties, responsibilities. Some include making meals, driving people, selling things, saving lives, teaching minds. Whatever you do, you can make a difference. How we make our difference depends on our mindset…right from the moment we open our eyes in the morning. If you use an alarm clock or not, once you open your eyes, your first few thoughts will determine your day. Yes, the first ten minutes! If you have happy, cheerful, positive, optimistic thoughts you’ll see that this will be the direction of your day. Make a routine that serves you. Do that many days in a row, and you’ll see your life following that direction. Conversely, if you awaken gruff, in scarcity, angry, miserable, so you will be in the following days. How much do you do that brings you joy, passion and purpose? What does your ‘perfect’ life really look like? Visualize it + write it down + make it happen. As Rumi said, “Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.”

Finding Happiness in Friendship

I met up with my friends Julie, Geri and Lisa recently and we laughed, told stories, enjoyed home-made goodies and planned another get-together. For those few hours, my heart was full of love, joy, contentment and friendship. We all need friendship time: in fact, it’s been touted as great medicine. “Treating friends like investments or commodities is anathema to the whole idea of friendship,” said Ronald Sharp, a professor of English at Vassar College, who teaches a course on the literature of friendship. “It’s not about what someone can do for you, it’s who and what the two of you become in each other’s presence.”

Watching some of the 2016 Olympic Games was a highlight of my August. Brazil just moved up on my bucket list. I am a firm believer in a vision board / bucket list. If it’s not written, it’s not true. I want to be in many places and I have the personal vision board to prove it. I was happy when our friends Will and Andry invited us to watch fencing, gymnastics, handball, volleyball and some of the opening ceremonies. Nothing better than friendship and sport! Those athletes are living their truth; just like them we all must live our truth, and that means doing what makes our heart happy.

Happy Goodbyes

Happy people focus on what they want and what they have, not on what’s missing. I have bid “a hui hou” (Hawaiian for until we meet again) to so many friends over the past six weeks. Reading blogs and periodicals regarding repatriation is part of this expat life, and I use them as a tool. I am filling my soul with coffees, dinners and lunches with my friends who are leaving, rather than dwelling on the void of their eminent absence. Winnie the Pooh once said, “How lucky I am to have something that makes saying good-bye so hard.” Truer words have never been spoken.

So, be a hummingbird or a bee or a butterfly and begin to cross-pollinate happiness. Go from tree-to-tree, flower-to-flower, person-to-person. Share your wonderful self and happiness. Learn from everyone you meet. Enjoy every opportunity. Have FUN along the journey. Every moment matters. Be happy.