Happiness is… or

At least for this moment.

Three smooth flights: all on-time and with sufficient transit allowed to not have to rush to catch the next one (o.k. it made for just as long of a day as going all the way to the West Coast of the USA with only two flights). I didn’t dare say it by the time I was waiting for the last one, but I have rarely had as easy a trip.

Laying vertically after all those flights and a 24-hour day

Seeing the moon out the window over the mountains as I lay in bed.

Waking to see the rising sun out the same windows (guest bedroom has a whole wall of windows looking out over the surrounding mountains: not a road, nor person in sight, only trees and nature. It is hard to sleep under those conditions as one could spend the whole time just enjoying the view.

Being able to get into the walking trousers that I had left behind (see former blogs about recent not-so-much-a-diet as a got-to-come-to-grips-with winter kilos. Now I didn’t say that it is a pretty sight, but at least it was doable.

B & K’s having gone to the trouble of buying me a lemon for my morning drink (o.k. no juicer meant that I had to get creative, but peeling and cutting into chunks and putting through a garlic press certainly did the job: as they say, necessity is the mother of invention); of having also pointed out to me the various coffee options available in the house.  Not my only addiction, but perhaps the best known one is my need for a cup of coffee in the morning and somewhere in between 15:00 and 16:00 in the afternoon.

Taking a walk around the “loop”: my brother’s street circles at the top of Monte Sano (appropriately named meaning as it does “health mountain”). The temperatures were perfect for a light sweatshirt and a brisk walk. Enough low-level up and down for me to feel that I have had a walk: there were birds that I don’t have at home such as red cardinals, robins, but there were other more house sparrow types that I do have; the trees and vegetation is in about the same flux of spring as at home; the streets still quiet.

Knowing that I have three whole weeks to enjoy being here.

Having family and friends who are always willing to house-sit and keep the home front secure.

Happiness is: also tempered, and thus made more precious, by not having Domino to walk with me; thinking of favorite walking spots and missing the beach by my younger sister. Losses make us appreciate even more those who remain, both human and animal.

But this happiness won’t be denied: my current waves of the stuff could warm many a corner if I could only think of a way of canalizing it.

Happiness is: being alive to enjoy it!