LITTLE PIECES OF HOPE—Happy-Making Things in a Difficult World by Todd Doughty is the most happy-making book I’ve picked up in a while.

It is page after page—242 to be exact—of lists (who doesn’t love lists?) of happy-making things.

Who knew there were so many hopeful, happy things?

Some of them were unknown to me, some of them made me remember similar incidents, some of them made me add books to my TBR.

The book is sunshine.

So, of course, I want to write my own list of happy-making things.

* Singing along to Bohemian Rhapsody

* Books that make you smile

* Bruno Mars, Jason Mraz, Benson Boone, Kenny Loggins, Meghan Trainor

* Finishing a book you loved

* Finally finishing a book you thought you’d never get through

* Mary Oliver’s poetry

* A dog on your lap who fits perfectly there under your desk

* The first cup of coffee in the morning

* Coffee at a café

* Getting a phone call from someone you like to talk to

* Your first trip anywhere

* Finally being on the airplane and in the air

* Discovering new music

* Barenaked Ladies (the band!)

* Finishing a project

* Feeling just lousy enough that you can go lay down and not feel guilty

* FLAMINGOS

* My sister

* Jon Stewart

* Coming up with an idea for a book

* Planning that book

* Writing that book

* Writing “the end”

* Any bookstore

* BONUS POINTS: A bookstore in a new-to-you state or country

* A bookstore with coffee is even better

* Discovering new writers: Bee Littlefield, Kurt Christiansen, Rachel Selle

* Reading an accomplished author and saying definitively, “I don’t think that was very well written”

* or saying “How did that make it through the gatekeepers?”

* Waking in the middle of the night to the sound of a gentle rain

* The names of paint colors

* Instrumental piano music by George Winston

* Laughing so hard you can’t catch your breath

* Allowing a movie, a story, a piece of art to make you cry

* Crossing things off your To-Do list

* YouTube (the world is at your fingertips!)

* Realizing that, yes, it really is a small world

* Disneyland’s Main Street when you first walk through that tunnel

* Being amazed by small things

* No, there is no leak in your bathroom

* Singing along to Don McLean’s American Pie

* Playing the piano

* Using your high school French to speak to a native French person

* Cleaning off your desk, refrigerator, your countertops, your closet

* A SCOOP of pelicans and the collective nouns of other creatures

* Baking cookies

* Freshly baked bread

* A quiet morning before anyone else is awake

* The silence of the first snow

What’s on your list of happy-making things?

Enjoy your week,

~ Gail

(Tick tock)

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