Happiness is…Being Resilient What started as a COVID-19 scare in March has turned into a nightmare 8 months later.  Church services being cancelled.  People not being allowed to attend sporting events, movies, concerts or plays.  Vacationers not being able to travel.  Family reunions being cancelled.  No physical social contacts.  Each of those happiness events are deposits into our well-being banking account. Combine this with a contentious, no make that odious, presidential election. A survey conducted by the American Psychological Association shows this year’s ..read more

Happiness is…Surviving Cancer    The Saturday before Labor Day, 2019 was going to be hectic but great!  A meeting with a potential client, brunch with our children, my annual family reunion and a trip to the Barter Theater for a performance promised to make it a hap, Hap, Happy weekend.  I woke up about 4 AM with excruciating pain.  When my wife got up about 7, I told her I needed to go to the ER.  After a CT Scan, they came back with the diagnosis.  I had kidney stones in both kidneys.  I was also informed they had found a solid mass on my left kid ..read more

Happiness is….Good Friday Why Good Friday? I must admit I’ve always had a little bit of problem wrapping my mind around the fact that we take a day in which an innocent man was convicted, beaten, made to carry his own instrument of death, had spikes driven into his body, humiliated and died an excruciating death, and we call it Good Friday. The Germans call it Karfreitag, which is translated to “Sorrowful Friday.”  Some believe that it was originally called GOD Friday.  But as horrific as it was, it was a sacrifice that gave us an eternal hope that billions of Christians would have n ..read more

Happiness is.. Surviving the Coronavirus Empty store shelves. Churches voluntarily closing their doors. Banning events of more than 100 people. People advised to stay in their homes and avoid all physical contact with others. I would challenge you would have to go back to WWII to find the measures that we find ourselves facing from the COVID -19 scare. I didn’t fear dying when diagnosed with Kidney Cancer, and I don’t fear dying from this latest virus. What bothers me more than facing the possibility of running out of toilet paper is the fact that people are losing their joy of life because th ..read more

The Joy Candle Judy and I were blessed this year to be asked to light the Joy Candle during the third week of Advent. Previously we had lit the Hope Candle and the Love Candle.  It seems each year, our pastor has chosen the candle that I needed to light for that year. The Joy Candle was ideal, because just a little over three months earlier, over Labor Day weekend, my wife drove me to the ER with excruciating pain.  Only a few people can claim their first episode of kidney stones was a blessing.  But this time, it truly was.  Because of the CT Scan they took for the stones ..read more

Happiness is…Expressing gratitude for the sacrifice of others. Happiness Factors Two contributing factors to extreme happiness is the ability to express gratitude in a genuine way and to recognize the sacrifice of others who have made it possible for you to reach this state of happiness. June 6, 2019, will mark the 75th Anniversary of D-Day. What better time to express gratitude and recognize the sacrifice of others than at this time. I’m a Navy veteran who served during the Vietnam War (I was never deployed).  I have always had a keen interest in D-Day, but a couple of events have escala ..read more

Happiness is…observing the International Day of Happiness, everyday.   The International Day of Happiness  The IDOH was established by the United Nations General Assembly on 28 June 2012 and states that the pursuit of happiness is a fundamental human goal.  They invite the world to observe the day through education and public awareness-raising activities. To me, the true purpose of the International Day of Happiness is for each individual to just slow down from their lives and identify what makes them happy, why it makes them happy and acknowledge the value happin ..read more

I’m a lover, not a fighter My state has a great state motto, “Virginia is for Lovers”.  I enjoy seeing all the LOVE signs in the various towns and cities in the state.  You might say, I love LOVE. On every list prepared by all happiness experts, there is a common characteristic for happy people.  We are lovers. We love other people, even if that person might be a challenge.  We love ourselves, not in a hedonistic way, but in an accepting “we’re not perfect” way.  We show this love by being quick to forgive others and ourselves. We love life, and don’t let momentary set ..read more

Happiness is…Taking a risk Are you a risk taker? In a previous blog, Happiness is…Seizing the Moment, I discussed how traveling brings me happiness. In the blog, I referred to an upcoming cruise to the Dominican Republic and The Turks a few weeks later. Well, it turned out to be an exciting cruise. The Incident Our ship was the Carnival Sunshine. If that name sounds familiar, do a word search for Carnival Sunshine, listing. It was our first night. Judy and I were lying across our bed trying to recover from our second round of gluttony in the last 5 hours, with the hopes we could make it to the ..read more

Showing Gratitude “No Man is an Island” is very true. None of us have ever achieved anything without having someone there to help us. Research shows that one of the key characteristics of Happy people is that they show gratitude. To make it even better, the more gratitude they show, the Happier they get. I know this is true, because I am a very Happy person, but on Saturday, September 8, 2018, I had an extremely Happy day. On that day, I showed gratitude to a very important person. Freddy Jennings grew up in Fries, Virginia. He was a soldier, serving in Korea. But he wasn’t just a soldier, he ..read more