Here’s something most people don’t know: I was a highly anxious kid. I worried so much, in fact, that my mother determined it was a problem that needed to be fixed. A fixer of the highest order, she may have over-fixed me, but being a low-anxiety optimist hasn’t served me too poorly. Thanks, Mom.
I’m sure she harnessed a variety of actions to teach me to manage my anxiety and pessimism, but the two I remember the most are getting me a set of worry dolls and buying me the book, 14,000 Things to Be Happy About. I read the whole thing. I even took notes in the margins, including different colored dots to note how each item made me feel. It was just a long list of items, including such minutia as, “the position of your head as you bite into a taco,” but it truly changed my perspective on life. I wish I still had that book with my notes and all of its creased pages, but since I don’t, here are some things that I feel happy about today:
- My elderly neighbor riding his bike past our house
- When my husband puts milk in my coffee for me
- Deciding there’s time for a walk
- Sharpies
- The Bischoff/Bobzien art gallery growing in my office
- Painting my nails while on the phone
- When Lois tries to mimic whatever I’m doing
- Texts with photos of my friend’s children
- Listening to my husband type
- Flowers I planted last year that haven’t died
- Having a backyard
- Seeing an email notification pop up in my non-work account
- Deadline free days
- Having everything the recipe calls for
- Counting weeks to my nephew’s due date
- Having a thing to run out and do
- Photobooth strips scattered on my desk
- The sound of Lois sneaking into the bathtub to hunt for soap
Natalie Burg 