My thoughts on Happiness. It seems to me that it doesn't mater how much you have or make or even who you know when it comes to joy and happiness. Its really all about how you perceive your life. What you are focused on - Past, Present or future. If you are focused on the past the you are looking behind you at what was. You are ether stressing about how much better things were - an act that is going to leave you depressed and longing for another time and place, or you are upset about all the bad things that have happened to you. Neither thought process is ever going to do you any good. No one can be truly happy living in the past. If you are focused on the future excessively then you are looking to the idea that thing might get better. This means that you don't like the way things are now. Chances are you are fixated on obtaining this that or the other thing in the future to achieve happiness. You are telling yourself that you need more to make your life complete and are paying little to no head to the things that you currently have in your life that are good. You will never really be happy with what you have because you will always want more. This is not to say that you shouldn't set goals - But that your shouldn't fixate on those goal or view them as a payment on joy. When you live in your present you are ether focusing on the good or the bad. Anyone can find enough bad things in their life to send themselves into a major funk I spoke with an ex-boy friend recently who has his ideal job, a home in location that's exactly the sort of area he has always preferenced and the one thing he wanted most in the world (to be a dad) who's response to me telling him that I was glad he was happy was to ask me "What made me think he was happy" and then he went into all the reasons his life sucked. Man must really be gifted to do that. The key to happiness is to focus on the good. If you have trouble doing that at time you can always make a list of things you have that make you happy. Things that you are thankful for. See if that doesn't help. The good things in my life 1.I have three wonderful, loving children whom I love Gobs and Gobs and plenty! 2.Drunks in bars actually back off when I tell them no in my normal voice. Being a female bass (I've taught myself to speck in a tenor voice and its still deeper then most of the men I know) actually is good for something. 3.I finally brook down and bought pints (oil). I really like the medium. 4.My web sight gets at lest one visitor a week, (see there's one now) at lest most of the time. 5.My son prefers to sleep with a mommy made quilt above any other type of blanket. 6.I have never had a colicky baby. 7.The cooler weather harbors in the Quilting season 8.We picked up a stereo system with 3 disk cd changer, surround sound speakers and sub-woofer for $170 9.I've finished a belly dancing costume I designed. 15 yard stretch netting, 20 yards wired ribbon, 3 packs of bias strip, 1 yard tea shirt nit. Head to toe blue. 3 peaces. A full leotard (with easy access) made entirely out of the netting (cant put a photo up, porn is banned here) half-tea top, and a skirt. The entire ensemble just cover's the important stuff. 10.I have enough of the yellow cotton I'm backing a quilt with to make myself something 11.I found a CD with Dobie Gray's Drift away on it. It is my All time favorite song! My Anthem! It has seen me threw many a bad spell 12.The Cd has three other really good songs on it. Ride Captain Ride, Brandy, and Ballroom blitz 13. I had never heard Ball room Blitz before, its really cool. 14.A long soak in a hot tub 15.Frank Herbert's son has written 2 DUNE prequels. They are rather good 16.Richard Adams has written a sequel to Watership Down (My all time favorite book) 17.The first of the live action versions of Tolkin's The Lord Of the Rings series will be in theaters on 12-19-2001. 18. We're (me, my husband and our children) are going to go see it on the 20th or there about. 19.My being not so well and thus a stay at home mommy I get lots of time with my children. 20.I've been told (by a first nurse non-the-less) several time that I have the happiest children a persons ever seen. 21.My abs were as flat as they had been in high school by the time Kristal was six months old and are almost as flat as I had them in collage. I would suggest that you try to find at lest 10 reasons to be happy, but more in better.