This thread is for sharing any particular moment you wish that made you happy today. Or maybe you have an inspirational quote that pertains to happiness that you feel you want to share? As long as it conforms to the forum rules, feel free to share it. Though when posting those little pictures of kittens with inspirational quotes pasted on them like some do on their social media blogs, do stop to consider if it’s truly appropriate.

Let it be said that none of us here are so naive as to attempt to force these ideas upon others unwillingly. Not only does it come off as corny, but non-organic happiness, especially when forced, is meaningless and actually counter-productive to making others feel anything.

I feel that many people out there rarely feel happy. If anything, I think that feeling happy about something might be a concept so alien to some, that they might not actually understand what happiness is when they actually experience it. Life in general feels bad enough that they choose to hand-wave or ignore those small moments as either happenstance or even weakness.

Happiness can be infectious in a crowd, especially with the support of friends, even if for only a moment. I think if this group is to achieve anything, we should start by showing others what makes us happy. Anyone can write out a few pithy lines to live your life by, that seem sincere and honest. But to the jaded and cynical they are meaningless because, much like salesmen, it feels like they are trying to be manipulative, causing one to dig their heels in and choose to ignore anything said wholesale.

So instead I think we should simply give examples of happiness we personally experience both small and large, simple and complicated, so as to give better example of what happiness in life can be. So I’ll start us off with something really simple, as I really don’t have anything too complicated going on with me right now anyway.

Today I went with my friends to eat breakfast. They called me at the crack of dawn (6:30AM for me) after I had just gone to bed not four hours ago. I was tired and cranky and ready to blow them off and roll over and go back to sleep. But I know we’d been talking about doing this for over a week now, as my friend said he went to the this place and found it to be really good.

I’m a chef, so my views of “really good” tend to be held to a much higher standard at times. So off I went to meet them, I’d been craving pancakes anyway, and as far as I was concerned this was just some greasy-spoon dive. Got there, ordered my coffee and saw they had flapjacks with huckleberry compote and honey-rum syrup on the menu with a side of buttermilk biscuits and gravy. It was the perfect heart attack all wrapped up in one neat little package! The price was right, you can’t beat all that for only $12. Now this alone would be enough to say I was already happy to have come here, but it gets better for me.

So the food arrives, and the portions are huge! Things are getting better, and I take a sip of my coffee, and low and behold it’s amazing, and I ask the server what kind of coffee it is and they list off some local bean roaster where I live that has a reputation of excellence. I’m already super psyched about this at this point.

Then I dig into the pancakes, and try the huckleberry compote. I expected it to be from a can, or commercially processed. What I was not expecting was that it was freshly made. That I could tell it was reduced with red wine and whole vanilla bean with cinnamon and allspice. I express my amazement to the waitress and she even goes so far as to mention that they are even locally procured and it’s from a farm I even know of and use at my own restaurant. This little highway roadside diner with no acclaim or prestige I knew of was going out of its way to do the best they could, despite their location and label. I’m making a point to meet their chef someday soon for sure.

My mind was blown, so were my taste buds, and at least for this morning, the chef in me was well and truly happy, and I personally was happy I woke my ass up out of bed and chose to hang out with my friends and not just sleep the day away. These little details might not mean much, but for me I find the little surprises in life to reflect some of the happier moments I’ve experienced.

4334388 my happy moment was talking to friends on Fim

(also loved the rant in the middle)

4334388 My happy moment... I've had more than one today.
Petting the baby goats,
Some sweet movie moments,
Petting my horse,
petting my dog...