Sonja Lyubomirsky & Happiness

I’d worked late finishing a presentation and short YouTube video clip for my upcoming trip to Chile in August to a Corporate Wellbeing Conference.  The trip is a double whammy for Sonja Lyubomirsky, who has been called the happiness queen will be keynoting on her new book The Myths of Happiness (2014).   I was hungry and tired, but after parking my scooter, I was drawn to the edge of our driveway, and then between the branches of the live oak across the street I saw the full moon.  // I never hear your voice / but what I feel in your presence / dyes my feelings the color of soft summer blossoms. // Let natures presence give you a happy sparkle today. 

Uncle Keith Footprints in my Dreams

My Uncle Keith walked across my dreams last night leaving soft memories like footprints in the sand.  Waking early to his smile to hunt for night crawlers, learning to bake the fish we caught in mud, riding on his tractor to the wild apple orchard, flattening pennies on the train track, and hunting for treasures in the pottery piles.  Seeing the pride in his eyes as he looked out over his farm and furniture store, and feeling his love as he watched his kids, grandkids, and great grandkids.  Uncle Keith taught me life is an adventure filled with love, and as he starts a new life chapter, I send him prayers filled with love, joy and peace.  Be mindful of the love in your life today.     

Cancer Survivorship Joy Class

His eyes got wet as he talked about the joy he felt sitting on his Harley at 11,000 feet on a mountain pass in Colorado, and as he talked you could smell the mountain air.  A survivor of two types of cancers talked about her daughter’s wedding, “Everyone was smiling”, and around the room I watched the smiles grow.  He had a straggly beard, old ball cap, had flown black ops helicopters, and his eyes held dark memories.  But when he talked about fishing his whole body relaxed and he laughed.  Joy has a unique psychophysiological signature imprinted in our hearts, creating internal smiles and engaging us to experience more of life.  Practice joy today.   

Summer of 1963

Last night I mowed the small strip of lawn in front of our town house and when I finished I stood for a few minutes and looked at a job well done.  That feeling took me back to the summer when I was 15 and mowing lawns.  After a long day of mowing I was in my last yard, it was the biggest, and really dusty.  I finished, turned off the mower, and my dad walked up from the end of the drive way and said, “You’ve worked hard today Billy, job well done”.  I’m sure he had said that to me many times before, but that day it became a feeling I began to own.   Being the best we can be each day is a choice we make.  Own that choice today!

July 4th 2014

I truly missed the emails from John Odom who passed last year and had served in the US Navy, and thanked his fellow veterans every Memorial Day and July 4th.  Friday we fought the mosquitos on our pier as we watched the fireworks.  The sounds took me back to my days at Fort Sill, where I did my basic combat training.  It was after this summer of riding in combat tanks, shooting off big artillery pieces, and checking for tarantulas and poisons snakes in my bedroll that I decided jumping out of planes would be safer, and signed up to become an Airborne Ranger.  I can hear John’s laugh as I tell him this story, “You’re crazy Baun”!  God bless all that serve our country in so many different ways. 

Childhood Obesity - Own It

I was in the hallway of my son’s high school waiting for a teacher meeting talking with another parent who was waiting for her son.  Her son walked up and she immediately hit him so hard it knocked him to the floor.  As the boy stumbled to get up, his mother said, “We don’t do that kind of stuff at school”.  We all were stunned when former Surgeon General Richard Carmona said the increasing childhood obesity epidemic will result in kids having a shorter life expectancy than their parents.  How’d we get here? It’s been estimated that the average American is 24 pounds heavier than in 1960.  What kind of role model are you for the kids who can’t wait to grow up and be just like you?  

Gratitude Waves

I cut saplings and sucker branches all day significantly increasing the size of the bush pile I’ve created for wildlife.  My whole body is worn out and I rest on the slider bench on our pier watching the clouds dance across the lake.  The crickets and frogs are warming up for their nightly performance, and the bats frenzied flight reminds me that dusk is near.  Deep inside I feel a gratitude wave crest for a day well lived, and then it slowly spills over and I am filled with joy.  Today, celebrate life with gratitude waves that turn to joy.