What does it take to make you happy?

Happy: Enjoying, showing, or marked by pleasure, satisfaction, or joy.

"Happiness depends upon ourselves."
Aristotle

This morning while cleaning out my inbox I read a thought provoking email. It asked:
What does it take to make you happy?

What a great question to snap you into the present moment.  As we are setting goals and timelines we are looking into the future but a question like this makes you stop to appreciate all of the things that make us smile today: the acts and people that make life extra special. I'm feeling very grateful.

Leonardo Hildalgo's Pink Snail in front of Biscayne Capital on Brickell Ave. Miami Florida 12.18.2011
I'm sure your town is covered in lights and holiday decorations.  Here's a snapshot I took in Miami last weekend.

This snail is part of a collaborative art project of the international artists collective called Cracking Art Group and Italy's renowned Galleria Ca d'Oro. It was created as part of the REgeneration Art Project, a public art series designed to inspire a community-wide conversation about the importance of recycling and its environmental impact, while leaving a potent artistic trace in the communities we live in.

From the artists:
'The snails symbolize nature created from recycled, artificial material, and leaves a minimal carbon footprint, which is to encourage people to re-examine existing perceptions of urban life, and inspire us to play with our cities, as well as to mentally and physically rejuvenate them, in other words, to REgenerate them into more healthy, vibrant, animated and loving environments.'

 I think that is a beautiful example of art making a statement and it made me smile.


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"Nothing thicker than a knife's blade separates happiness from melancholy."
Virginia Woolf


"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."
Mahatma Gandhi


"People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be."
Abraham Lincoln


"Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted."
John Lennon
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Synonyms: blessed, blest, blissful, blithe, can't complain, captivated, cheerful, chipper, chirpy, content, contented, convivial, delighted, ecstatic, elated, exultant, flying high, gay, glad, gleeful, gratified, intoxicated, jolly, joyful, joyous, jubilant, laughing, light, lively, looking good, merry, mirthful, on cloud nine, overjoyed, peaceful, peppy, perky, playful, pleasant, pleased, sparkling, sunny, thrilled, tickled, tickled pink, up, upbeat, walking on air