The Happy Little Lemon Cat

Okay readers, this first post is hard. I have spent practically all of my life keeping a journal or a blog and in turn have been endlessly catching thoughts with little memory hooks. I tell myself, remember that, write about that. And sometimes I do. But sometimes when I get to the computer, that glorious thought I had at lunch or during the drive home just loses its sparkle. I get wrapped up in silly things. Like what's going on with Maggie or Rebecca or Joanna or Danielle. Not that any of those women are silly. In fact, they are all inspiring women with interesting things to say. However, it's silly of me to get so wrapped up in what other people are doing and thinking and completely shut down on my own world. It scares me when I think of what I could have been doing. What have I missed as I whiled away the hours surfing the net, sometimes doing little more than googling images for my Tumblr? Like, hello? What was the value in finding a picture of a dog in a cheerleading costume?

But anyways, my intent for this post was not to bash on myself. In fact, it was almost the opposite. I wanted to write about things that make me happy.

Several years ago (I really can't remember exactly how many) I purchased a book called 14,000 things to be happy about. And the book is just that. It is an enormous list of happy makers. And throughout the however-many-years that I've had it, I often curl up in bed and put little pen marks next to the ones that I agree with. It's been a great way to end a day, putting pleasant thoughts of "chubby cows chewing contentedly on the grass" (p. 454) and "sleeping naked between crisp sheets" (p. 570) in my mind before sleepytime. It's also given me great ideas of things to do. (Again with the naked sleeping. Har har har.) I even planned a date once based on a few happy things I marked off one night; a make-omelets-and-color-in-coloring-books date (which was pretty damn fun, I might add).

Well,  I want to start my own list of things to be happy about. And it starts now. Right now, with 1) my cat licking the empty tin of a microwaved chicken pot pie and the funny sounds that are coming from her pleased little kitty mouth.

I don't know if I'll make it to 14,000. I don't know if I'll add to my list every day. But it will be building here and making me more grateful for a life in which I can enjoy each of these things.

I feel like saying cheers here. So, cheers! And may this be the beginning of my happy list and if you feel so inspired, hopefully yours too.

The Lemon Cat's Happy List


2) live music resonating through a small town
3) the smell of loved ones
4) the contrast of dark telephone wires against a colorful sunset
5) seeing every detail of a spider's web
6) coffee and pie for breakfast
7) taking the whole day to make homemade spaghetti
8) Pottery Barn's cable-knit throws
9) Constant Comment tea
10) seeing airplanes and imagining where all of the people inside are going and what they're going to do there
11) Gustav Klimt
12) rereading favorite books