My Happy Places

I have always tried to focus on finding happiness in the little things every day.  I found that if I placed too much value on one single thing making me happy that I was setting myself up for failure.  However, there are some things that make me happier than others and those have always been my happiest places.

Some of my happy places are seasonal.  For example, I love to sit outside in the summer sunshine while reading a book and working on my tan.  Feeling the warm sun on my skin and losing myself in a mindless read has always made me gleeful.  I love sitting at a winery with a glass of wine in my hand in the springtime.  The flowers are bursting with renewed colors and everyone around me is always so happy to be out of the house and out in nature again.  In the winter, I enjoy curling up on my couch with a trashy magazine or a cross stitch project and losing myself.  The snow falls outside my window, I am snuggled up in a warm blanket and I have a glass of mulled wine at my side.  Ahhhh, cozy.  I find that in the fall my favorite times involve some sort of project -- carving pumpkins, making decorations, etc.  I guess that is just my time to prepare for winter and settle in to months of being inside.

My happy place these days is spent with Superman and Superboy.  I love when the three of us are all together and laughing.  Superboy is always doing funny new things and Superman and I love to look at each other over the top of his head and smile at each other with delight.  The three of us shooting hoops is fun, the three of us reading books together is a joy, and the three of us eating dinner together on Sunday nights is heavenly.

There has been one constant happy place in my world though.  It does not matter what season it is or what is going on in my life.  I recently reclaimed this happy place for myself on the two days a week that Superman is home.  I am running again.  After writing this post, I realized just how unhappy I was with my body.  My workouts are great, but running will always be my working out soul mate.  I truly missed it and I decided that I was no longer going to talk myself out of doing this one thing for myself.  So what if Superman has to rearrange his schedule a little bit?  I do that every day of my life now, so I decided to be a little selfish.  I am pleased to tell you that running is exactly as I left it.  I can blast my iPod and pace myself to a little Britney Spears.  I love rediscovering my running playlists.  I love exploring my newish neighborhood and waving to fellow runners.  What I love most is that it is fantastic exercise and an amazing way to clear my head.  It gives me 45-60 minutes to just lose myself and turn off the noise of my everyday world.  I pound that pavement and reclaim myself.  That is my happy place.