Things that make me happy....

Photo by Christopher Tomlinson

...The photo of 4 owlets on the front page of this morning's paper. Now that's Good News! Can you see them all? These aren't the ones we watch. That Mama had 3 babies, though the nest was blown down and one owlet is in rehab with a broken wing. The nest was replaced in a basket, and Mom and the other 2 babes are evidently doing fine, though we haven't been to see them recently.

 

...The 'Super Moon' over the Eiffel Tower. This photo was posted today as the Astronomy Picture of the Day on the NASA site.

  

...The 'Super Moon' over my front yard.

...Listening to an interview of Jason Mraz on NPR. He said about his new album, "I definitely wanted to create a big-picture album that all humans could relate to with a universal message of love." 

(NPR) Mraz's sunny disposition doesn't always come naturally. The singer says that, for him, pursuing happiness is an active choice — not a default.
"It's from being melancholy and having my human down experiences that I learn, that I overcome, that I transform — and these realizations I put into song," Mraz says. "That's what I choose to put in my backpack and carry with me around the world."

...Listening to  the songs on Jason Mraz's album, Love Is a Four Letter Word. And putting them on my iPod and carrying them in MY backpack!

I recently read the book, IMAGINE: How Creativity Works, by Jonah Lehrer. He talks about the melancholy nature of creativity quite a bit. Of course, that isn't a new concept, as many have written about it before. But, as a creative person who occasionally struggles with some depression, I find it wonderful and encouraging; happy-making, in fact, to hear someone like Mraz turn his melancholy into intentionally joyful music.  So much better to listen to a song that makes me want to dance than to listen to music, or look at art, that makes me want to huddle in a corner and weep. Just sayin'....