So I'm A Volunteer ......

...... for something called The Happiness Project.

I don't remember how I came to sign up for this research project.  I think it came to me in an email.
Someone is researching the happiness level of Americans.  I think.
No sex, race, color, creed or religion is being taken into account.

I receive 3 texts a day asking how happy I feel at that moment.
On a scale of 1 - 10.  One being very unhappy, ten being ecstatically happy.
I have consistently rated my happiness level at a 7 - 8, with mostly 8's .... only two 7's.
(Fortunately I was doing with my three texts yesterday, before I saw the music video that brought me to huge tears.)

I'm not counting the 5 I gave this afternoon, when I received the text after spending an hour of my life that I'll never get back chasing two dogs down.
Yep, it seems that the younger one (male .... who'da guessed that?!) broke through my 10 foot wooden fence.  Just hurled his body right through it, I guess, and led the other one into my neighbor's yard.  When she opened the gate to come and tell me, they burst past her and ran like hell throughout the neighborhood.  I chased them to the end of the street but then they made another break for it.
So I had to go back and get my car.  I drove to their house to see if that's where they'd end up.  But they didn't.
So I went back to my neighborhood (which is only 2 blocks from that one) and circled the block again.
No dogs.
So I parked my car and went walking and calling and whistling through the trails.
And praying.
Lots of praying.
I did not want to have to tell my friend that I had lost her dogs, before they move to South Africa.

I headed a ways down a trail but never caught sight of them so I turned back.  That's when I saw a flash of dog.  And sped up a little.
By that time I was sweating more than profusely.
Both dogs seemed to have jumped into a pond.
Or a lake.
And were very, very muddy.
Of course I was wearing a white t shirt and white shorts.
Which are no longer white.

You can only imagine what the back of my car looks like.
And smells like.
Ugh.

I'm not speaking to the dogs tonight.
Even if they are really cute.
And tired.
And try to climb in my lap.

But I digress.
I was talking about the happiness research project.

I find it very interesting that when I receive a text, and stop to really think about how happy I am in that very moment ...... I am very happy.  It makes me think.
I am very blessed.
Life is mostly good.
Yes, there are some not-so-good things.
Like my worsening aching joints.
And not having Jim.

But really, even with that ....... even without him, I feel blessed.
Less blessed than when he was alive, certainly.
But still ...... blessed.
In different ways.

I'd love to be able to change my circumstances, but I can't.
He's not here.
And he never will be again.
But he was here.
And that's what matters.
Very, very much.
More than anything else.

And so I am happy.
It's a different happy, to be sure.
But it's still happy.

My children are all healthy and all doing well.
They love each other and they love me.
My family members are all doing well and are all pretty healthy.
And I have some good friends.
And can still play tennis.
Whoop.
:)

I am a child of God, who loves me very much and is always with me, even if I don't always feel Him.

I am happy.
And content.
And very, very blessed.

Happy Sunday/Monday, Peeps.
:)