Being Happy (My Happiness Project)

I have read two or three more chapters of The Happiness Project. To be honest, the most useful tip I get out of the book is about cleaning/organizing my house (my room). After reading the book for four months, I’ve realized that, in general, I am already a happy person. Now that I am retired, I am even happier.

It is not a cheerful day today – one of those gray days. I’m a little bit depressed in the morning. If everyone has a quota to meet for being unhappy, my alcoholic brother, no doubt, has helped me exceeded my unhappy quota. That gives me more reason to be happy the rest of the time.

At noon, we visit a local bank to understand their services. The branch manager patiently explained every feature their bank has. He is earnest and trusty. Talking to people like that makes me happy.

I am so surprised when I see an email in my inbox saying “Don Charisma is now following your blog”. I haven’t blogged for a while – retirement makes me somewhat lazy, lazy but happy. Who would like to follow a not-so-active blog? Of course, the first thing I do is to check him out. It turns out he is an interesting person. After reading his blog for 20-30 minutes, I’ve learned (1) to respect the “community” (2) pictures are important (3) making others happy may be easier than I think. (Thanks Don for brightening my day and motivating me to blog again.)

Being happy is not that hard if I can keep being appreciative. It’s a happy day!

Thinking Back

I am at the age that I think back a lot. I thought I would share some with you.

Teacher Zhang

Teacher Zhang wasn’t one of those attractive women, whom you would look twice when you saw her in the hallway. But every time she walked passing our classroom, my classmates and I never failed saluting her with our eyes because she was the best dressed teacher in our high school. In fact, she was the only teacher who wore trendy clothes! Rumor said that she never wore the same dress twice. Some students suspected that she owned a clothing store.

One day, ten minutes after Teacher Lin started our class, we heard Teacher Zhang’s footsteps. Again, we all turned our heads to watch her. For a split second, Teacher Lin wasn’t sure what was going go, but soon he joined us. When Teach Zhang disappeared from our sight, teacher Lin grinned and asked: “Do you guys do this all the time?”

Thinking back, I really appreciate Mr. Lin allowed us to behave like teenage girls. Some other teachers, for sure, would scold us. Many years later, I went back to visit my high school and saw Teacher Lin. We had a nice chat. It was easy to see why he was one of our favorite teachers.