A Measure of Happiness

Despite construction concerns and the training of a new puppy, or perhaps because of those? I’m kind of waxing philosophical today. The sun is high and bright in the azure sky, the wind from the west is providing a cooling breeze, all my clothes are clean and drying stretched between the four corners of the “castillos” , the metal contraptions that will eventually arm the cement corner posts of the storage shed; all couldn’t be better with the world.

The last contingent of sheep has traipsed by baaaa..ing their way through the pasture north of the lot, Queenie has stared hard at the whole lot while Mindy tried with her high-pitched bark to intimidate the passers-by, without much success, I’m afraid.

Besides the wind flapping my clothes this way and that, and the birds chirping in the trees, there is hardly a sound attesting to the proximity of the “civilized world”, all its attendant technologies, and the myriad motorized rumbles on a nearby road feeling so distant.

Old Maria, my only neighbour, has called to me to give me a bottle of purified water, so afraid is she that my “unclean” water may make me sick. I hadn’t the heart to tell her that I have a countertop filter that serves the purpose quite well. Apparently, she isn’t known for such gestures so I wouldn’t want to thwart her budding kindness. . . Besides, I think I haven’t reached such a level of fluency in Spanish!

Am I such a simple soul that I feel I need for nothing except what I already have? I think that many years ago, I opted for happiness rather than the pursuit of pleasure, a rather transitory affair since it must always be renewed or heightened; and is costly. This I learned in the Desert Southwest and in the foothills of the Rockies. So, to paraphrase a song by Bill Miller, I offer Praises to the Creator for all that surrounds me, the Beauty of it all, and offer Thanks for my Children, and for all the Creatures that make our World such a wondrous thing to behold, and of which to be a part.

Yes, I am grateful. And happy. And wish the same to you all.