“Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.”  Antonio Smith

When is the last time you took time to “smell the roses?”

Cease striving and know that I am God.  (Psa. 46:10a; NAS)

Friday a week ago, I mentioned that since I started this little series on happiness, I keep finding happiness messages popping up all over the place,  As just another example, the most recent Mercola newsletter had a major piece on happiness.  I’ve included it as today’s link in case you want to see what the good doctor has to say about all this.

In addition to all the afore-mentioned serendipities, there have also been a few testings.  (Isn’t that the way it always goes?)  I have to confess that I didn’t pass some of those testings with flying colors, so I’m sure I will get a few more chances to get it right.  But I am certainly getting higher scores than I once did.  Hallelujah!!!  This past weekend for instance, the blower fan on our heating system went out…meaning no heat!  Of course, it just happened to be the first snow of the season and coldest weekend we’ve had all winter.  You know, it’s hard to remember all these little happiness tips when you’re in the middle of a storm, isn’t it?  So, just know that it’s a process and much like when learning to ride a bicycle, if you fall off, you need to get up and get back on or you’ll never learn to ride.  (BTW, they’re supposed to come tomorrow to replace the fan motor.)

Today, I’m focusing on happiness tip #9 (see DG 1/4/08 for the complete list of 30).  “Notice small things.  …try to notice when you feel good, or you’re not suffering, or you are tasting something really delicious, or you feel something cold or hot, anything. Noticing the little things will help keep you focused on the present.”

Sometimes it seems like we’re programmed like the news media…programmed to notice only the bad news.  After all, good news doesn’t sell very well.  We only notice our toes when one of them is sore; we only notice how wonderful it is to breathe clean, fresh air when we’re where we can’t; we only notice how warm and cozy our homes usually are when the furnace goes out, et al.  Why is that? 

Certainly part of it is a natural byproduct of the busyness of our lives that we talked about last Friday.  When our pace of life is frenetic, it’s always “the squeaky wheel” that gets the attention.  It’s when we can s-l-o-w  down enough to recognize that most of the wheels aren’t squeaking that we can really begin to focus on the abundance of blessings in our lives.  Hard to do when it’s freezing cold outside AND inside, but as soon as we can shift our focus from the problem back to the perspective that we are incredibly and wonderfully blessed, the problem begins to fade into the shadows.  Of course, we also have the choice to stay focused on the problem.  Not a very happy thought!

So smell the roses!

Prayer Power
Lord, we are so incredibly blessed…just to be alive.  Thank You for all the wonderful things that You continually do for that we don’t even notice.  Forgive us for taking Your multitude of gifts for granted.  You are an awesome God!!!

Link of the Day
Simple Secrets of How to be Happy

Blessings on you as you look for a few roses to smell today.