September 30, 2015
(If we live with an open and grateful attitude, every
day will bring a gift. This is one of 365 gifts during the year I turned 70.)
About 15 years ago, American and Japanese students
participated in a project: What makes me happy.
It was one component of my doctoral project. Every once in a while, I answer
this question for myself too. Ten things I need in my life for happiness:
1.
CREATIVITY: I have opportunities for this through
writing and photography/designing.
2.
LOVE: I need to love and be loved. I need the
spiritual love of one person reaching and connecting with another as well as
the emotional love that allows me to make myself vulnerable in a relationship.
I also need to touch and be touched physically and to make love emotionally and
physically.
3.
ADVENTURE: I need adventure in my life—adventure of
discovering new places and people through traveling. I need to have some of my
life punctured by the unexpected. And I need the adventure of new ideas and
imagination.
4.
SOLITUDE:
I need time and space to be with and
by myself to write, think, dream, fantasize, read, walk and meander. I need to
vegetate and have down time during this solitude because that is when the mind
makes connections that normally wouldn’t be made.
5.
CONNECTIONS:
I need to connect with nature,
people and my spiritual self: nature through the use of my senses, people
through sharing myself, and spirit through opening my soul.
6.
LEARNING:
I need to learn through study, both formal and informal, meeting people and
exploring on my own (such as on the computer or reading).
7.
HEALTH: I
need reasonable health in order to have a balance in my life to pursue all of
the above-mentioned things. (Of course, this is likely to change…)
8.
ORDER/BALANCE: I need stability in finances and
relationships and in the choices I make.
9.
SELF-ESTEEM:
Self-esteem lays the building blocks for future accomplishments. I need
success in my activities, career, relationships, etc., in order for me to
continue to reach high.
10.
INDEPENDENCE/A
DEGREE OF AUTONOMY: Although my
connections with people are very important, I must also be totally myself. After
all, although there are people along the way, ultimately we enter and leave
this world alone. .
My
gift today is another day to be happy.
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You can find links to my other posts on this project here:
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