It’s called Marine Mosaic and it was actually on sale. I wasn’t in the store to buy it and my budget only allowed me a single yard of it, but from that I’ve gotten three throw pillows which fit into my grand plan for redesigning my main room and I couldn’t be happier. I’m half-way through stitching all three of them closed, but I had to pause and blog.

It’s the darnedest thing. Fabric doesn’t usually make me happy just by looking at it, but this one did. Four shades of blue with a cream accent, and two of the blues are my favorites. One is my husband’s and matches the wall color, to boot. But it’s also made me think a bit about happiness, itself. I recently watched a TED talk on the subject (a blogpost for tomorrow) and when I couple that intriguing twenty minute video with my own political and religious thoughts on the subject… well, I’m just not clear in my thinking  yet.

What makes you happy?

There are other ways to think about happiness than ‘what makes you happy’, but it’s a valid question and a good place to start.  What makes me happy? Well, obviously this fabric. Also kittens. And sometimes pictures of kittens. But I notice that it isn’t reliable – while looking at a picture of a kitten being stupidly, adorably cute lowers my blood pressure every time, it only makes me happy a smaller percentage of time. And in fact I recall being the frustrated owner of a kitten or three. (Owner. Head of Maintenance. Chief of Staff. Whatever.) The cuddles were awesome. The adorable snoozy moments, also awesome. The permanent scratches on my antique furniture because I’m ethically opposed to having them declawed and they are ethically opposed to listening to me as kittens, less awesome.

Interacting with people I love makes me happy… sometimes. When it doesn’t annoy me, frustrate me, or downright anger me (being honest, here). In the writing of this post, I paused to engage in witty repartee with my good friend Rachel, whom I’d been chatting with on and off all afternoon. I have to admit that at four separate points I did in fact laugh so hard I started snorting. And in front of an open window, too.

So really, as I start cataloguing the things that make me happy, they are also the things in turn that make me angry. What about you?

Post #1 in series on Happiness.