Don't worry, be happy.

I’m reading a book right now called ‘The Geography of Bliss’ by Eric Weiner, which has the tag lines; One grumpy writer. Ten countries. Will any of them make him happy? Well you get the plot and it’s a humorous and fascinating read.

Happiness is normally something I feel quite a lot of, but lately I’ve been so focused on picking out paint, carpet, furniture blah blah blah that whenever a friend has asked “so watcha been doing” my answer for the last few months has produced the glassy eyed malaise of those quickly losing the will to live! I was even boring myself stiff but as the book so deftly points out; "happiness for most is simple math. Add up the pleasurable aspects of your life, then subtract the unpleasant ones. The result is your over all happiness” So in order to raise my own Gross National Happiness level on Tuesday, I loaded my truck full of toys and headed out into nature promising myself a full 8 hour day of fun.

First stop a little surfing. There wasn’t much surf to speak of but I didn’t care, I just wanted to get wet, and look at the mountains from the ocean and if I was lucky, catch a few rides in the process. Blurred pici but proof positive I did exactly that. Next stop my beach chair and the reward of my early morning chopping, let me tell you, fresh fruit salad never tasted so good! Another little happiness tip, evidently most of us like to earn our joy, it just feels better.

Onward to Kanaha where I had a 2 hour sailing window. Today was a good reminder for me not to sail with a time limit as it really gets in the way of my flow. In doing the happiness math my sesh wasn’t ‘unpleasant’ but it didn’t merit the points that an open afternoon would have rendered. Still – what the hell – it was Tuesday, I was off work and heading for a lady bits wax and as “attention is the universal currency of well-being” I figured all that personal attention would out weigh the pain!

Home for a quick nap then the highlight of the day, dinner with Lano! Evidently social scientists estimate that “70% of our happiness stems from our relationships, as camaraderie blunts our misery and boosts our happiness” and I think all of us left both boosted and ever so slightly bloated. What a treat to break pizza with this man (and his clan) from the land of downunder, where women glow and men plunder, can't you hear, can't you hear the thunder, you better run, you better take cover!