Jun 01 - Things To Be Happy About
By Stefano Blanca Sciacaluga
When I'm feeling a little funny I start to question whether I'm cien por cien llani. No. Whenever I'm feeling a little funny there are two things I like to do that are guaranteed to calm me down, make me think straight and get me back to normal; and those are going for a drive in my car (no matter where to, or for how long, five minutes will suffice) and playing music.
I've been driving for six years now which coincides roughly with the first time I felt anxiety had taken the wheel a bunch of times. Coincidentally, I have only recently discovered the healing properties of playing music, as between 2008 and 2010 (when I started driving) I hadn't played with anybody for extended periods of time for several years; a break that lasted until about this time last year when I started my current band, Manatee. I'm now playing with three different sets of people, rehearsing two or three times a week and although I might complain I'm tired I'm enjoying every minute of it. I may not have much time to drive anymore, but one helps the other out, y'know.
As I said, it wasn't until about 2010 or 2011 that I realised this was something that was here to stay. It was also the time of my life where I probably had the most free time, which really, as some of you might know, is not really ideal in these situations; keeping the mind active is key. But I also realised that a lot of the people I was following on social media (musicians, photographers, comedians, artists) were feeling the same way. I don't know if it's a millennial thing, or an Internet thing or I don't know, but I suddenly found all these people online, on Twitter. And it was through Twitter, and through a retweet that I found the @thingstobehappy account. Now, let's just be honest, let's just be real this thing changed my life. It's sounds a little exaggerated. But within seconds I was on an Amazon checkout page with a copy of 14,000 things to be happy about in my basket. I pretty much had no clue what this was, but like when people first experience something like ASMR and find out what it is, I went a little wild. Here was a Twitter account (and apparently a book, which I had just purchased) full of one-line tweets about things to be truly happy about; and the most interesting thing was that they weren't even the obvious things to be happy about, but I felt like I was in-tune with this thing. So I kept scrolling and scrolling and I remember reading this Twitter account until the early hours of the morning, possibly retweeting and favouriting more than I should've. But I had just found the best thing ever. So for the next few days you can guess how it went: I looked through the Twitter some more, followed the URL on the profile and eventually landed on the Wikipedia page of a Barbara Ann Kipfer, an American lady, about my mum's age, who is a lexicographer (the people who write dictionaries) who's written a crazy amount of books of which the one I just bought, 14,000 things to be happy about, is one.
I waited patiently for a few days, with no idea what this book was and no desire to spoil the surprise, until it arrived on my doorstep on a cold, English winter morning. I ripped it out of the packaging, opened it up and, quite frankly, I don't remember what my initial thoughts were, but I remember thinking the format of it all was so peculiar that I had to at least look through a couple pages. And I did. And I couldn't put it down. And I cancelled all my day's plans, stayed in bed and read a good chunk of it. Then some more every day, for weeks, then months, and I kept picking it up at random intervals during the day to read a couple things to be happy about (it's essentially a list). In the absence of my car, or my instruments that one book was making me feel incredible! What was even better was that my new friend Barbara was constantly writing new things to be happy about on Twitter, almost daily. And so, after a while, and as naturally as breathing, I started to come up with my own. I was coming up with my own things to be happy about, because if Barbara - somewhere in the US - was finding things to be happy about, so could I; and I started to see things in a different light. A falta de pan buenas son tortas. I didn't have my car or my music but just as what happened with the sounds, that I mentioned in this other blog entry, I started to look at things around me in a more positive light, seeing the best of everything and highlighting the good rather than the bad; and you wouldn't believe how calming that is!
Now my copy of 14,000 things to be happy about is tucked away nicely on one of my shelves. I've bought copies for friends, recommended it to a lot of people and I still revisit it from time to time for the odd page or two. It's definitely my favourite book ever. It's even helped in the way I take photos and make art, my style changed after discovering the book.
And so with all this in mind I have decided to not only show you a couple of tweets from the official Twitter account (which will be all over this article) and encourage you to check it out and maybe even purchase a copy (inexpensive for the amount of joy you will get from it) but I have also decided to take a couple of hours this evening to compile a new list of things to be happy about in this upcoming June 2016 and the summer:
- Scheduling time in your busy schedule to do nothing
- Patiently waiting for the right day to shift from trousers to shorts without feeling cold at any time of the day
- Cold soups and salads
- Beautiful, late golden hours and later blue hours
- Salty hair
- A stray cat's meow
- El afilador y el de los dulces
- Remembering the winter passed and planning the next
- The hazy light rays that creep over the top edge of the rock at about nine or ten in the morning
- Hearing someone whistle or call, turning around without hesitation and it being at you
So what do you think? What makes you happy? See if there's anything you can take away from this way of seeing the world.
Stefano is a happiness hunter, writer, artist, photographer and bassist of local bands Manatee and Bob and the Boys
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