Moments of Happiness

Most moments of happiness that I've had aren't that elaborate or fancy. But as I've grown older I have noticed that instead of being sad my life is not what I've pictured or disappointment in things that I've had or not had, it is more that I realize that powerful bittersweet moments are so fleeting. Simple things can sometimes bring you joy and at times really unusual things can as well.

Here is a list of joyful moments I've had:

The smell of fresh-cut grass in spring

Seeing a minute long, blowing snowstorm in the summertime

Walking through a gritty, gusty dust storm as I walked home from school

Many years ago, seeing my son dump toys out of his backpack he got from the school store for being good that day
Finding plastic school store money in his pants pockets when doing laundry
Hearing that he reassured another child about having autism (both my boys have autism)

Seeing a random, tiny, lizard on my window

Seeing bulls and foxes when I lived in the country; also hearing a neighborhood rooster crow; I love hearing roosters crow

Seeing red/pink sunsets

One blustery October morning when a Siamese kitten came to our front door to visit

When I got covered in a nice warm blanket while visiting the emergency room for bronchitis-this small act from a nurse was so incredibly comforting

Many random acts of kindness from various people

Moments when I am not judged, and someone is there to just listen to my problems

When my youngest used to call me by my first name and say I Love You before bed and wanted a hug

Reading Goosebumps books to my kids when they were little

Holiday breaks when I was a child

Petting goats at petting zoos

Going to Planetariums

Growing a garden this year for the first time, and seeing it actually turn into something

Spring after a cold, tough winter

When I got a black kitten on mother's day

When my kids are content

Deep, dreamless sleep after a hard day

My husband surviving his heart attack 5 years ago

A good cup of coffee with cinnamon in it (lol)

Picking crab apples off a neighbor's tree as my sisters and I walked home in our bare feet after spending all day at the neighborhood pool during the sunny summer days of childhood

A person in high school I was sitting by in at an assembly, a girl who was in one of my classes that I never spoke to because she normally sat across the room, whispered in my ear that I was beautiful. Nothing was meant by it except that she was paying me a compliment and I don't think she spoke to me again after that. But it was really nice and something that I needed to hear because I was going through a lot of self-doubt.

Saturday morning cartoons

As a child, trying not to fall asleep at midnight mass while my stomach stirred with excitement thinking about Santa Claus and presents

Donating a painting I made for a charity auction at my son's school and finding out it sold

Making a B in Algebra 2 in high school (the struggle was real)

Taking short-lived singing and acting lessons while growing up

A popular girl taking me under her wing during a field trip a time when I didn't have many friends

A man taking me and my friend's picture at the local for a story the local paper was doing about the neighborhood pool. I wish I still had the newspaper clipping from it- I was proud I made the paper lol. I was only about five or six

Getting first communion on Easter in the fancy blue dress I had picked out for that moment

Having my poem published in a magazine when I was thirteen and getting paid $5 for it

Visiting the pumpkin patch

There are probably many more, but those are some that come to mind.