On this Sunday, I’m hoping that the day finds all of you well and happy and enjoying the bliss that comes with summer (if you are in the northern hemisphere) or the coziness that comes with winter (if you are in the southern).

It has been a beautiful week for us here in Crete: calm breezes, cooler temperatures, some very perfect beach days.  And G and I are looking forward today to a coffee morning on the port with our freddo cappucinos and newspapers.

Things have been relatively quiet here on Living Happiness, as you’ve noticed.  A quiet that bespeaks a calm which doesn’t exist … at least, not at the moment.

But it is Sunday, and it is time to celebrate joy and happiness and gratitude and those wonderful A-HA moments in our lives over the past week.  So without further ado, here are the newest additions to The Joy List.

1. I have my five-year-old granddaughter with me. Watching her at swimming lessons and horseback riding lessons have brought me pure joy. Takes me back to when her mother was that age. ~Linda Estes

2. Taking my seven-year-old son to watch his first 1st-grade NRL match. ~Simon Hay

3. Getting home to my hubby and a wonderful smelling, clean house; a waiting set of cats; and a husband that loves me! ~Carolyn Cummins

4. Being with family and enjoying time for fun, swimming, eating and laughing. I need family more everyday. ~Paulette Nall

And my additions:

5. Enjoying a late lunch one afternoon on the port with all of my girlfriends.

6. Watching the kittens who come to play in our yard at dusk.

7. Spending a summer evening on the back veranda with our dear friends and upstairs neighbours.

8. Heading off to the beach one afternoon with G for the perfect swim.

9. Finding three books in a local consignment shop for a total cost of 7euros.

10.  Anticipating the arrival of a friend this coming week for a good visit.

What about you?

What moments have you brought you the most joy in the past week or two?

Please share your joy with us.

Happy Summer!

A Note to You Dear, Lovely Readers: Living Happiness will be on summer holidays for the next few weeks, as Chania Girl tries to finally get on top of her online teaching and conquer the mountain of visa paperwork she is still climbing. If you wish to visit CG, please stop by and leave a note on Facebook or on Twitter … or drop her a line at livinghappiness (at) gmail (dot) com. See you in autumn!

I am honored to have been invited back again for another month at Karen Wallace’s lovely The Calm Space.  I hope you will please come join me there today as I share about me and happiness and our own little game of chase.

See you there!

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Photo Credit Jeff-o-matic

As I sit down to write this morning, my mind feels like a nervous butterfly excited to see all of the flowers, not knowing which one to alight on first.

So much has been happening on our little side of the island: overfull online courses, overlong visa applications, and overloud vuvuzelas punctuating the sentences of our days. When we get a moment, G and I haul out for a coffee, a nibble by the sea, sometimes a relaxing hour or two on the beach. We talk to each other, we spend time with neighbors, we try to soak up what we can of this, possibly our last, summer in Greece for a while.

Outside our garden is growing into a small forest. Just the tomato vines alone resemble small trees, and the fresh tomatoes that are finally ripening, drip juicily down our chins when we pluck them and bite into their warm fleshiness. The cucumber bushes migrate over the ground on small feet and continue to produce more cucumbers than we could possibly eat, and the pepper plants put forth enough little offerings that we are constantly bagging up these goodies and presenting them to those we know. Life is fecund. Life is abundant.

Gazing through my French doors onto the back veranda and the flower garden beyond, my eyes fall on pools of green dappled light, a gift from the fig trees.

Over the past weeks and days, I have had more than my fair share of ideas to share with you. Posts that excite me and I feel would excite you, too. They will come. In their time.

But not this morning.

This morning is about you and me sitting and being.

Look out your window this morning.

Tell me what you see.

I would love to know.

With joy,

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*Living Happiness will be on a new summer schedule, posting only twice per week until the fall. Enjoy your summer!

This Sunday’s post will be a quiet edition of the Joy List.  Everyone is busy with summer holidays and high school graduations and the busy-ness of not being busy.

Here are the things or moments that brought me the most joy this past week.

1.  A quiet morning after a much-needed twelve-hour sleep.

2.  A lazy breakfast of wholegrain bread and jam, a bowl of sliced fruit, a plate of scrambled eggs, and a big mug of tea.

3.  Watching an episode of “The Waltons.”

4.  Coffee on the port with G.

5.  Talking to my dad on Father’s Day.

6.  Hearing from an old student who had just graduated and wanted to thank me for the help I gave her in my class.

What moments have recently brought you joy?

Namaste,

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Photo Credit steve.grosbois

He did not arrive at this conclusion by the decent process of quiet, logical deduction, nor yet by the blinding flash of glorious intuition, but by the shoddy, untidy process halfway between the two by which one usually gets to know things. ~Margery Allingham

Once upon a time, Intuition had a partner.  She filled her days in his company, and together they made magic.

Everywhere they went, people commented on them and what a remarkable couple they were.  They became the most popular guests at dinner parties, the most sought after for society events.  Their social calendar was full.  And why not?  Everyone wanted to be paid a visit.  Everyone wanted to be where They were.  Everyone, deep down, just wanted to be them – that’s how glamorous they were.

But then one day, Intuition and her partner had a falling out.  Over what, no one is quite sure.  But it seems Intuition wanted to do things one way and her partner, another.  And for the first time, their often-reconcilable disagreements did not end in a compromise.  Neither one would give and inch and, just like that, the fabric of their relationship was torn.

Intuition decided to go it alone and so, therefore, did her partner.  Being the more vibrant of the two, Intuition, of course, got the lion’s share of the sympathy and remained a favorite at many of the dinner parties and weekend soirees they two used to frequent together.

Her partner, Reason, however, did not fare so well and was slowly sidelined into only brief appearances at occasional luncheons, talks, and teas.  Only rarely now did any of their old friends contact him, and when they did it was usually on the sly, secretly, when no one was looking … lest any of Intuition’s friends find out and fill her in.

Time wore on as it does in situations like these.  Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months, months turned into years, and before long hardly anyone could remember anymore a time when Reason and Intuition had been partners or – more than this – lovers of the highest order.

Friends of either one knew only the “now.”  And since, to their minds, their friends’ permanent state of spinster- (or bachelorhood, as the case may be) had always been the given state of things, they could have no way of knowing the playful, boyish side of Reason that Intuition had once never failed to bring out in him.  Nor could they understand the focused, confident face Intuition used to present to the world when, reassured and calmed by Reason’s steadying hand at her elbow (or in the small of her back), they entered a room together.

However, in a few (very few) hidden places around the world, there are still some people who know and remember a time when Reason and Intuition were one.  These are their oldest friends, the ones who couldn’t believe the split when it happened.  And as they’ve watched the two try to go it alone, they’ve secretly hoped for and awaited the day when it will finally occur to them again – Intuition and Reason – that they are not fully themselves without the other.  These friends know that Reason and Intuition’s place is right by each other’s side.

What about you?

Do you believe that Intuition and Reason can be reconciled?

Or are their differences irreconcilable?

Your comments are welcome, as always.

We know the truth, not only by the reason, but also by the heart.
~Blaise Pascal

Namaste,

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