The Happiness Project

[gnimmel]

I'm interested in happiness.
I mean, everyone is, I guess[1]. But I've been reading discussions like this, and this, and this. And I was thinking about the cheese and pickled onion sandwich.

The thing about the cheese and pickled onion sandwich is this: provided it is the right cheese and pickled onion sandwich (that is to say one with crispy

Comments

[elettaria]

Walking in the Jerusalem forest with my family as a child. Sunshine and wildflowers and the warm smell of pines. It's still one of the most beautiful places I've been to.

Playing piano duets with my best friend all the time as a teenager, bashing hell out of Beethoven and Schubert and getting far too many notes wrong but having the time of our lives. We used to attempt the finale of Don Giovanni together, me playing the piano and singing Elvira, him singing the Commendatore, and throwing the other parts back and forth as needed, which is amazing, hectic fun.

Going to North Berwick for a week in October with ghost_of_a_flea, the first romantic holiday either of us has ever been on. (For context, I'm severely disabled with ME and rarely manage to get out of my flat, so just getting close to a tree feels like a miracle for me.) The weather was unexpectedly glorious, I got out of our rented flat every day. Most days we'd manage a walk along the beach (which was practically on the doorstep), and one day I even got as far as a bit where we ended

[weaselspoon]

I asked her if going to an all-night Japanese movie marathon was a stupid thing to do after an art gallery and a three-hour opera.

She said Sounds like a challenge to me.

[elettaria]

Good grief, those "happy news" websites you linked to are seriously depressing! The best I can think of is finding one of the BBC's cute animal videos and then following links to more and yet more of them. They're addictive, be warned.

Bonus points for the Stoppard reference, I did like that.

drunken moonlight on the Verde

[caprine]

I was fifteen, on a spring break trip with a bunch of students from my private high school, led by one of the art teachers. We went to Arizona and camped out in the most beautiful places he could find. We spend a few days camped on the beach of the Verde River, across from the hot springs. Crossing the river to the springs involved very cold water, sharp rocks underfoot, and fast currents; the springs were worth it, though. After crossing the river you had to hike up an incline to a cliff where the hottest pool was inside a concrete shelter with psychedelic paintings all over the inside and the slightly less hot pool was outside, lined with rough rocks. The rowdy boys with my group would soak in the outside pool until they were sweating, then jump off the cliff into the cold river, swim to the base of the incline, and come back to repeat the cycle. I didn't partake of that sport myself but it was amusing to watch

[the_elyan]

I am rarely swept away by happiness, because my brain keeps watching the world and carping at things, but...

On Saturday, I was walking in Norfolk, along the road from Great walsingham to Binham Priory. There was no traffic, gently rolling countryside, and the sound of a multitude of songbirds. It could have been a summer afternoon in 1910 as easily as 2010. There wasn't a sound out of place. I had the glorious feeling of existing entirely myself, in the moment, and aware of the extraordinary pleasure opf being in this place at this time. Despite the birdsong, is made me think of A Book of Silence. Part of me wanted to have someone with me to turn to and say "Isn't this wonderful?", but a larger part revelled in being absolutely alone under the sky.