Imagine

 

 

Imagine we are sitting in front of a fireplace. I pour the coffee, would you rather have tea, or a mulled wine, that is warm too? The fire is quietly burning, snapping occasionally, I guess those logs had a bit of water in them.

We settle down with our drinks, prop our feet up, and I explain that I have aired complaints on my blog for the last couple of years; now it's your turn.

So, tell me, is anything bothering you?

I used to have a close friend who would visit for a few days, and we would sit up at night talking. First, we had to get all the frustrations, irritations, and junk, out of our heads, and then about 3 in the morning we would get down to serious, insightful conversation.

It was like a writer's morning pages—write the junk out so the good stuff can come in

Steven Pressfield advises artists to "Sweep your floor, so the Muse doesn't soil her gown on the way in."

But here we are, you and me. 

If you don't want to tell me what's bothering you, that's okay. Write it down; I won't peek. Get personal, not just about world conditions.

(Ah, I have to tell you, a Robin just perched on a limb outside my window, and it's November 24, 2025. I thought winter was coming, and that robins are spring birds. He sat a minute, looked at me, and then flew on. Good luck on your journey, sweet bird.)

Having an interruption like that rather knocks those bothersome thoughts out of one's head, doesn't it? 

It did mine.

Lately, I've been reading and writing about "Get Happy." And I know the idea of "Let's just get happy" irks some people. I have a friend who says she is happy all the time, and she gets flak for it.

But I am investigating the possibility of "Let's Get Happy Now" using Joseph McClendon III's definition of happiness.:

"Happiness is a mental and emotional state of being where your internal focus is optimistic, and the body produces positive energy."

Now that's something I can get behind. It doesn't say, "Just decide to be happy."

It doesn't minimize hard times.

It doesn't say that we will live in eternal joy.

It doesn't say that being grateful will bring about happiness, although being thankful for the good in your life is a splendid idea. 

It doesn't say that your emotions of sadness, depression, grief, or anger ought not to be expressed; it says that "your internal focus is optimistic, and the body produces positive energy."

"Happiness," some say, "comes and goes." It's fun to be happy. But we aren't "ha ha" happy all the time. We laugh at a joke and it fills the happy coffer for a minute. We see a beautiful sunset, an ocean, a beach, or an exquisite alpine forest, and we are in awe. That's fun. We giggle with our children when we see them running in joyful enthusiasm. We love being in love—talk about endorphins. There are many avenues to happiness. But we don't live on the mountain top all the time; that might wear out our synapses, too. However, the idea of living in an optimistic, positive state sounds good to me.

I think when people say, "I just want to be happy," it means more like McClendon has described—being optimistic and allowing our body to produce positive energy.

Those individuals who have lived to be 100 or older, especially those who live in the "blue zones" of the world, probably have experienced sadness, grief, disappointment, anger, and resentment, but that is not where they live.

Generally, those centurions have a full life: they eat well, have social contact, a spiritual bent, and, as they mostly live in a village, they walk a lot.

Most of us don't live in villages anymore; we live in cities or on the farm or in residential areas where often neighbors never speak to each other. However, we can make an effort to create a healthier lifestyle. Joseph McClendon III, a neuropsychologist, says that when people come into his office and he asks them what they want, they usually have a grocery list of things they do not want. When he presses them by asking what they want, they go blank.

Here is an exercise McClendon suggests: Write down your most magnificent day as you see it in your mind's eye.

Or in our case, sitting here in front of the fireplace, we could share how we see our Magnificent Day with each other.

I would love to hear your take on this.

This has been a lovely visit, more on happiness later.

Thank you for joining me.

                        

P.S. I wrote this post for the newsletter I am trying to get going, but decided to also post it here so you will see what I am up to.

josnewsletter.com

Touched by Angels

 

Last night, as I was driving down the street, a little voice in my head said, “Buy a lottery ticket.” Listen to those voices, I told myself, and pull into the drive-by window lane at a Dari Mart where I know my daughter has bought lottery tickets.

I didn’t know what to ask for or what to order, and the kid at the window didn’t know how to advise me. I said, “I know, it has a Power Ball on it. I’ll take two.” (The second one was for my daughter; hey, we could both win.) 

He left, and when he came back, I offered him my credit card.

“They only take cash,” he said.

"Oh, I only have a dollar. Well later.” I prepared to leave. 

“Wait a minute,” he said and left. When he returned, he handed me two $2.00 tickets.

“You’re giving them to me?!” I exclaimed.

“I paid for them,” he said.

Well, I raved and thanked him. I told him he was an amazing young man and said, it’s strange; I was just thinking of something I had read today about a man standing in line at the bank ahead of a girl with a mason jar half filled with coins.

He said to her, “I thought that needed to be filled.”

She explained that she was short of cash and needed to turn them in now. 

He told the teller to add $50.00 to her account when she arrived at the window.

Within one week, he got a $50.00 tip, exactly what he had paid the girl, and presented a screenshot to prove it.

 “I got a $50.00 tip,” said the young man at the window.

“You did?!” 

 “I bought a new phone with it, as I had broken the other.” 

“Good for you. That’s amazing. Thanks for telling me.” I drove away with a smile and lightness in my heart.

That light heart erased the troubled one I had left home with.
It wasn’t about winning the lottery. I didn’t win, and I did verify it online last night. It was about an exchange with that sweet young man. You can bet I will tip that clerk the next time I see him. Today, I made sure I had a five-dollar bill in my wallet so when I stopped by I wold have change.

A few days ago, on a gray overcast Saturday, Husband Dear and I had breakfast at the Viking Inn in Junction City. The lady waitress said, “It’s going to brighten up today, but it doesn’t matter what the weather is, it’s going to be a good day.” 

Yes, I agreed with her, the weather will do whatever it needs to do. 

"Hey," she said, we live in Oregon, we expect it to rain."

I commented on how good the food looked today, and she said that now, on Saturdays the restaurant will have all women cooks and waitresses. Yea, breakfast at the Inn should be a regular occurrence. And the bright and cheerful lady was right; the sun came out before we left.

Touched by angels.

This afternoon, on the road to the park, I saw a man in an electric wheelchair going about 20 miles an hour down the road. It turned out we were going to the same place, a park. Before he disappeared from my sight, I saw that little dog was sitting at his feet on the chair. 

Soon, he came bounding around the cement walkway surrounding the park with the dog running beside him. And I thought about how elderly people should have pets as they will do for their animals what they won’t do for themselves. I don’t know about that man, but he was giving his dog a fun run.

If you read Jo’s Newsletter, you will see that I am still working on my continued Real Estate continued education course and writing Money Shout Outs. 

As I work through the money info and clear myself, I will Shout Out what I have found. If you taste something exquisite, don’t you want to share it? And I figure that money is a hot spot for most people. Attitudes explode around it. So, I guess it’s our attitudes that we need to work on.

And if you’re afraid that an abundance of money will make you a selfish blowhard like some of the people who stay at the Plaza in New York and behave like spoiled brats. Some jerk the butlers around, cry over spilled blueberries, want condoms delivered to their room, and live lobsters in their bath. These people give rich people a bad name. You won’t become like them unless you are a selfish blowhard already. And I know you aren’t—those people don’t read my blog.

Be of service, share what you know, up your attitude, and you will have a happy life. 

Challenges, previously called problems, will come. They are thrown in your path to help you grow. And think of it this way: don’t you feel great when you have taken on a challenge and handled it with aplomb?

 (The tears? Oh, they were part of the process—you didn’t think it was all sweetness and light, did you?)

 

https://joycedavis.substack.com