Happiness

 In a recent  NYTimes article (April 21), I read that the United States ranks 14th on the Happiness Scale behind all the Nordic socialist countries.  Finland was ranked Number One.  The position is determined by a self-administered questionnaire with a series of questions.  One question that stood out for me was “Did you smile or laugh yesterday?”  It got me thinking about the problems we have in the United States and they all weigh me down and make me frown.  Blood and gore sells so the media is focused on negative happenings.  Bob says the news isn’t interesting anymore now that trump is gone. 

I’ve reflected on what it is that makes me happy.  One is to get out of myself and to do something for someone else.  I appreciate the small ways the church offers opportunities to help others——baking cookies for an Oakland Homeless Center or making sandwiches for the Richmond Souper Center.  It makes me very happy to lead worship and preach and I’ve been given opportunities for that this year.  It makes me happy to go on walks.  That is a pleasure from the pandemic lock-down days that I hope to keep up.  It makes me happy to zoom with family and see the grandchildren.  Friendships, old and new, give me great pleasure.  Bright birds, flower gardens and good music always make me smile.  Propagation at the Botancial Garden always makes me smile because it is so nice to help new plants to grow and come to flower.  The first in-person event at church was an Earth Day poetry celebration.  When the harp music started I got tears in my eyes because it was so beautiful.  Just to be together with others made me very happy.  If I can just remember to smile I know I will feel better because just smiling changes my brain chemistry so I can remember the many things for which I’m grateful.  

Better Days Ahead

 The day after Easter I had corrective surgery on my eyelid it so it would close properly.  The “procedure” was done in the office of the plastic surgeon at Kaiser.  It was the most simple way possible, no IV’s, no nurse, no systemic anesthesia, no nurse to hand him the instruments, just me and the doctor.  It took 1 1/2 hours and now that the healing is well under way, I can say, it looks to have been successful.  I was very surprised how much it took out of me.  I took long naps on the first days of recovery.  It made me realize how vulnerable I am as I near 80.  The robust Julie has been replaced by one that has to work hard to remain active and strong.  Changes, setbacks, now have a longer recovery.  Nevertheless, I find it astounding that my body knows how to heal and does so in its own good time.  

During the first week, I was told I couldn’t do anything that would raise my blood  pressure or heart rate.  That pretty much excludes everything but lying around.  I joked I couldn’t even watch the news.  Now into my second week, I have rejoiced that all restrictions are gone.  I am free to take walks again and hike up and down the local hills.  As always, when we walk, I look for beauty.  But beauty is also here at home.  Arne’s apple tree is in full blossom.  The delicate pink flowers adorn branches high and low.  It didn’t get pruned this winter so I wonder if we’ll have more apples?  I am surprised there are no bees buzzing about the tree.   In my garden, there are tiny daffodils and late blooming yellow narcissus where I never planted them.  Surprises!  At the Botanical Garden, yesterday, walking with a friend, I was surprised by the astonishing beauty hiding inside the bush anemone flower!  And finding clumps of Arisema flowers (Jack in the Pulpit) growing hiding underneath bushes and big trees was fun.  I was astounded at their striped petals and curving shapes.  They look like botanical cobras rising up.  Best of all was seeing a hooded oriole in a palm tree.  Its bright yellow body with a black hood over its head brightened my day.  A birder saw us watching them from afar and he called up “I’ve been fully vaccinated.  Would you like to look through my binoculars?”  Generosity is always a great gift and I am grateful he wanted to share his find with us.  

Here in California the cases of Covid are greatly reduced and vaccinations are way up.  It looks like things are progressing slowly back to where they were before the pandemic.  Traffic is back.  Restaurants are opening up, albeit at reduced capacity.  In May, our gym is supposed to open up.  The busyness of daily life is creeping back.  All that is good.  Maybe by July 4, we will all be able to celebrate with our friends and family!!!  There are better days ahead.  

Easter 2021

Today was Easter Sunday, the biggest most important day in the Christian calendar.  It’s always been a less important holiday in our culture than Christmas, even though it is from a religious point of view much more important.  This year, the second Easter in the pandemic, I enjoyed our Easter celebration much more than last years.  Last year I followed what I’d done before, having a traditional breakfast, then watching the zoom church and lastly going on a long walk in the Berkeley neighborhoods.  Coming home, I cooked at traditional Easter dinner, ham, scalloped potatoes and pie.  This year, I was somehow freed of tradition.  After a breakfast of strawberry pancakes, we went on a hike up a trail in nearby Tilden Park we’d not been on before in our 41 years here.  We met a friend a hiked up the SeaView Trail which has lovely views of San Francisco, the Bay and beyond to the West and to the East, San Pablo and Briones Reservoirs, Mt. Diablo and the Central Valley.  It was a joy to hike up to the highest point.  There was a labyrinth and amazing wildflowers.  We were the oldest people on the trail, the only white hairs.  I felt proud to be hiking without difficulty up the hill.  Returning home, we watched our church’s zoom service for Easter Sunday. We didn’t feel we had to watch church first this year.   I liked what our minister did, dividing the service into three parts:  Fear followed by Mystery and ending with Hope.  He gave the clearest presentation of Resurrection I’d heard in a long time, tying what two of the church’s elders told him about seeing the face of Jesus in those who came to visit and help them in their hard times.  Yes, I like that.  We are the agents of resurrection with the Spirit of Christ moving through us to others.  I planted my flower garden.  It felt like an important thing to do——plant flowers on Easter.  Finally I made a “Resurrection Pizza” for Bob.  He told me the food he most misses is pizza which has been banned because of it’s high fat content.  So I decided to make a low fat homemade pizza for Bob, resurrecting his favorite food.  I used a Bobili crust, sautéed onions and peppers, and lots of olives on top of a layer of tomato sauce, then I sprinkled it all with low fat cheese.  We both thought the new pizza was even better than our past favorite one.  So new life in pizzas and flowers.  It was nice to be freed of past restrictions and just have a free and wonderful day.  

Book Group

 My Book Group met tonight for our monthly discussion of a book we all read.  This month was outstanding, exceptional, incredible because we met in person for the first time in more than a year!!!!  We’re all fully vaccinated and so it’s safe for us to meet.  We met outside in one of our member’s yard and sat at tables mostly socially distanced but without masks. Yeah!!!   It was a celebration of being back together in person.  We toasted this auspicious occasion with champagne.   I noticed we got much more off topic and chatted with our neighbors —-so there were often multiple conversations going on. We were stimulated by each other’s energy and presence.  We were all so happy to be able to be back together, something we had taken for granted for our whole long lives.  It felt free.  It felt surprisingly normal.  It shed light on how hard it has been to be so separated for so long.  It felt very good to be back together.  We talked about how the children will view this long pandemic time.  We all thought it has been especially hard on the children.   I said, I think they are learning important lessons about how to survive in a pandemic because I think there will be more pandemics in their futures.  As the sun set, we ended chatting as though this was the most normal thing to do, be together, sit together, discuss a book together.  How wonderful!