Blog Your Blessings: Six Things that Make me Happy

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I came across a meme asking participants to name six unimportant things that make them happy. I thought about that for a minute or two and then realized nothing that makes me happy is unimportant to me. That got me thinking of the ordinary things that make me happy just because they are there.

1. Remembering my Grandmother. She was a lovely, lovely lady. She loved me and accepted me when I was a teenager. I was a misfit and felt it to the bone, but it didn't matter when I was with her. She was good to me. We'd play cards, drive around, stroll the grocery store. It didn't matter. Her company was a treasure to me. She helped  me feel good about myself when nothing else did.

2. Boxwood. The fragrance of a boxwood tree makes me think of my grandmother. One of her great gifts was a family history. She would tell me about her cousins and aunts and uncles and siblings and parents and neighbors. She had a boxwood under a living room window, and the fragrance would fill the living room on a summer night. The smell of a boxwood reminds me there is a bigger story. And I am a part of it.

3. The doll that sits in my front hall and belonged to my grandmother when she was a child. It reminds me that life goes on and on, that we are durable, that we really don't know what part of our story will continue, so we better make it good.

4. My daughter. Who was born 17 years to the day my Gram left this world and is the joy and love of my life.

5. The geese down the road. They remind me life goes on and show me what is possible with a little cooperation as mother and father shepherd the babies around with love and care and fierce protectiveness. Beautiful thing.

6; Coffee. Of course.

7. The alarm clock that tells me it's a new day. Amen.

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32 Comments

  1. What a great list and a nice idea for a post, I may borrow it next week.

    Have a wonderful Memorial weekend.

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  2. I really enjoyed reading yours - sounds like a think I'll do some thinking on that myself for a post. You surely had a wonderful grandmother, just like they all should be!

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  3. Loved reading your list, Sandy!
    Have a nice weekend!!

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  4. great posting,I hope that you and your family have a great weekend,and Please say a prayer for our service men and wmen and for those that served and have gone home to god.

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  5. I loved my Grandmother just that way...because she made me feel more like me than anyone else did. I adored her and refused to accept that she had died...I can still hear her voice in my head, feel her hand on my shoulder...you are so blessed to have a grandmother like that! I'm so happy for your memories...
    hugs
    Sandi

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  6. Anonymous10:38 PM

    I hope to be the kind of grandmother who leaves a legacy of love as your has!

    Happy weekend!

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  7. you had a special grandmother...fun traditions to continue. I love being a grandmother much more than being a mother-there's more joy and less responsibility....

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  8. Sandy: Sometimes we forget about the simple things that make us feel great.

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  9. Just coffee or a cappuccino as well?! :-)

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  10. Beautiful Sandy! I shall try to be that kind of grandmother for my grandchildren! Thanks for sharing! Have a great weekend and a blessed Sunday!

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  11. All of your things are wonderful, but my alarmclock has a nasty sound!

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  12. Enjoyed your list. Presently, the sun wakes me before the alarm does.

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  13. Your grandmother is obviously very much on your heart.
    That was a lovely post. Thank you for sharing the things that make you happy.

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  14. An excellent list - although I'd delete coffee and insert tea :-)

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  15. It feels so good to contemplate now and then about our daily life. I mean, I just feel the dawn coming, hear the cockeroles and the birds starts singing. Then I look out the window and watch the sky. That is happiness, then I can hear my grandchildren wake up and prepare for school. I can go down to see my daugther and wish good morning. To top it off with I cup of coffee, I agree with you. And if we are aware of life around us, it's so many thing to feel happy about. I hope we remember to thank each day. I do try.

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  16. This is a wonderful post a a great reminder that some of our greatest blessings come from the little things we too often take for granted.

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  17. Your list touched my heart, especially #1 and #4. Have a blessed weekend!

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  18. "The doll that sits in my front hall and belonged to my grandmother when she was a child. It reminds me that life goes on and on, that we are durable, that we really don't know what part of our story will continue, so we better make it good.">> wow! see how simple things like that can actually lead us to reflecting on something important. nice sandy!

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  19. I can see how all of these things make you happy except the alarm clock. Now to me the alarm clock is in the catagory of a car, both are necessary evils.

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  20. What a coincidence, Sandy - there is someone in our clan who is born on the death anniversary of a grandfather he never met.

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  21. Such a lovely post My Dear Friend!

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  22. what a touching post, your grandma evidently meant so much to you.

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  23. Nice list! I too have cherised memories that relate to boxwoods. When I was very small-we lived in a house that was surrounded by them-each time I smell them-I'm taken back to being a 5 year old little girl.

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  24. Its the small ordinary things that we make us the happiest. The trick is in the realization.

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  25. You were blessed to have a grandmother who lived close. Our family history died with my parents. I inherited pictures of strangers.

    All the best.

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  26. Thank you for inspiring my day with your list of everyday blessings!

    My grandparents meant the world to me. When I think of my maternal grandfather, I see myself as a little girl, reaching up to hold on to his hand, and he lifting me up to look at black and white pictures of the great Karajan in Salzburgs old town shop windows. And I could swear there was always Mozart's music playing somewhere!

    Congratulations on David's POTD award! :-)

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  27. Hee hee Were you tagged with this? When I sent it on, a few tags ago, the instruction was "(un)important things" - ie. either important or unimportant, anything really. I like the way you said "ordinary", that's much more in the spirit of the challenge!

    I had a grandma who sounds very similar to yours. She was the sweetest and most beautiful person I knew and I dearly miss her. There is something about the bond with a grandparent which cannot be replaced, but which I think can never be lost either, even when they have passed on.

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  28. Congrats on POTD! Loved your responses as I felt the same way about one of my grandmothers. And I couldn't understand why the rules say "unimportant things"...

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  29. Lovely post! Grandmothers, mothers--what a very important role they play in our lives, do they not? And how dreadfully we miss them when they are gone! Thankyou for this wonderful list. You touched my heart! Congrats on POTD! ~Janine XO

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  30. This post is not helping me with my coffee addiction! Ha ha. I agree with you about no thing is unimportant that which makes us happy.

    I wish i shared your feelings about the alarm clock...

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  31. Lovely list ;--)
    You know how much I love gratitude posts and this certainly qualifies as you share your blessings.
    Hugs and blessings,

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