NOTE:  On my bike rides on my way to work, I ride by Children’s Fairy Land next to Lake Merritt in Oakland.  Children’s Fairy Land was Walt Disney’s inspiration for Disneyland.  The photo above was taken right outside the entrance.  This piece of art has always been a favorite of mine.  I do believe in happily ever after.

Recently a friend of mine wrote he thought I was one of the happiest people he knew. Well, reading that certainly made me quite happy!   And got me started thinking about the different kinds of happiness.

There’s the happiness when someone you knew in childhood that you haven’t seen since high school find you on Facebook and you reconnect to discover a wonderful rich relationship , a new friendship with beautiful roots to an exquisite and memorable small home town.

There’s the spirited joyousness of seeing the first flowers of spring.  And the bliss of body surfing at the Jersey shore, catching a perfect wave for the unparalleled sensation of a long thrilling ride through warm ocean water.

There’s that burst of elation in finding a perfect parking spot right in front of the De Young museum in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, when usually you have to walk 3/4 of a mile.

There’s the unexpected pleasure of meeting a new person and discovering you want to talk forever.  Or the remarkable happiness of laughing so hard and long with someone,  your stomachs hurt and your eyes tear up.

There’s the joy of having work you love and people you love to work with, so going to work each day becomes a thrill.

There’s the feeling-like-a-kid exhilaration of riding a bicycle through tree-lined streets in an old-fashioned neighborhood.

There’s the tender pleasure in seeing someone else happy.

And there’s all the joy that children bring, the exultation of seeing your beautiful and talented daughter sing in public, not to forget the euphoria of falling in love or the deep fulfillment of being married for a long time and loving even more deeply as each year goes on.

So many different kinds of happiness!

Joy, happiness, euphoria, pleasure, exhilaration, ecstasy, delight, jubilation, pleasure and bliss.

May you experience all of them!

Love,

Ingrid