Happiness is....

Back when I was a younger and less cynical Magz, I had this boyfriend who was this emotional skater boy. His clothing color palate was limited to black and white and his facial expressions were limited to straight or half grin. I used to grab him by the rim of his salt and sweat covered black cap and say, "Smile!" When he did, his whole face would light up and all of the sudden, you could see right through to his soul. It was amazing and breath taking. I think he felt too vulnerable so tried to hide those moments.

Anyway, Black Skater Boy used to tell me all the time that I was the happiest person that he knew. That was kind of a stretch because at that point in my life, my clothing color palate was limited as well. I just wore a smile to show off my Bonnie Bell lip gloss. Incidentally, seven months later when we broke up, he also told me that I was the biggest whiner in the whole world but I digress.

I guess it made him happy when I smiled because he gave me a book that was a list of 10,001 things that made the author happy. It was this stream of consciousness list that had no rhyme or reason but was very entertaining to read. I used to carry it around with a pencil so that I could underline the things that made me happy as well.

The more I live my life, the more I realize that happiness is different things at different times. At this moment, these things would make me happy:
~cheaper gas
~A glass of drum cloud white mountain tea
~No ants in the kitchen
~ten minutes where I am absolutely alone
~A walk in the woods
~Vegetarian pizza with Japanese Eggplant and goat cheese from California Pizza Kitchen
~A nap with my favorite purple quilt
~To be able to protect all of my "kids" from harm
~Summer Break
~A good book
~The ability to write my own good book
~A drive down Skyline Drive with lunch Sky Lodge and a hike
~The sunshine
~The ability to not worry
~Personal acceptance on one's self

I haven't seen or heard from Black Skater Boy in at least twelve years. If I ever do, maybe I need to pass his book back to him. Who knows, mayb he's already created his own Happy List.