Do you ever feel, just, you know… satisfied … and happy … and uninteresting to the blog reading world?  Yesterdays post put me in quite this mood.  I don’t mean to brag, but I really have a pretty fantastic life.  OK, I do mean to brag, but hopefully this incessant optimism will be appreciated and understood.  I really have so much to be thankful for, my beautiful wife being just one.  It seems that there is so much negative in the world right now.  So much that can drag us down, not only physically, but mentally; psychologically.  It can be easy to get sucked in to negative thinking if we allow the things around us that we cannot control to creep in and grab hold of us.  Regardless of the positive things that I have going for me, gas still costs $4.00 a gallon; the housing bubble has burst; the mortgage finance world is in near collapse; global warming is threatening our environmental well-being, etc. etc. etc.  Very little that I do will significantly change the outcome of these scenarios in the immediate.  However, there is much to be happy about;  much to focus on, and much to apply my energy towards.  So as a start, for today I thought I would share 10 Things I have to be happy about.  There are definitely many, many more, but here is part of what keeps me smiling everyday:

  1. I have a great, supportive family.  As mentioned previously I have the greatest wife a man could ever desire.  I also have four fantastic children, three of whom have grown to adulthood and are experiencing their own successful lives, including the addition of the best daughter-in-law I could ask for.
  2. I have a great place to live.  It’s not a mansion, but it’s a comfortable home that provides shelter and place to keep my stuff.
  3. I am currently gainfully employed.  Although I do work for the corporate world which seems to shift and change on a whim of the fickle financial markets, my business is strong and we would appear to be in good shape for the present.
  4. My wife and I, as well as my children all have been blessed with good health.  We are all strong and healthy, and are working hard to remain that way.
  5. My entire family has been blessed with the gift of music.  We love to get together and listen to music, as well as create and perform music together.  What a great source of happiness!!
  6. We live in the Southern United States of America; considered by me to be the most beautiful and friendly part of the country.  We are fortunate to have mountains, sand hills, plains, coast, lowlands, winter, spring, summer and fall, all within easy access of anywhere in the area.
  7. I love the Internet, the blogger world, all the cyber–friends I have accumulated, and I have a MAC.  Woo Hoo !!!!
  8. I have many, many, many, many hobbies that I regularly engage in that are relatively inflation proof.  It doesn’t cost much to write a song, or carve a piece of wood, or draw / paint a picture, pick a guitar / mandolin / banjo, play a piano, or shoot pool on an already paid for table.
  9. I love to read, and I have easy access to lots of books and other reading material, not to mention about a gazillion blogs in the old google reader.
  10. I live in a great area that provides lots of recreational opportunities: walks in the woods, hiking, camping, music festivals, craft-brewing festivals, wineries and vineyards, etc.

 So as you can see, I have much to be thankful for, and much to focus my energy and attention upon.  No need to fret over those things that can’t be controlled, or worry about all those unknowns.  Put your attention on today, because tomorrow will take care of itself.

Oh yeah, and GO OBAMA ’08!!  YES WE CAN!!