Tree of Happiness Award and Creative Every Day Challenge 2009

First, Linda at Vulture Peak Muse gave me the Tree of Happiness Award. The image that comes with it is almost too cute for me (grin) but I will wear it all the same.

I'm supposed to pass it on to three others who spread happiness by sharing (on their blogs) what makes them happy. And then I'm supposed to list, meme style, six things that make me happy.

I'm passing this award on to DebD of Deb on the Run. And to The Cunning Runt of Little Bang Theory. And to The Pagan Sphinx. I am awarding them in particular because I have a feeling I can guess some of their lists - they show their happiness on their blogs, after all, but I'm also going to challenge them to make at least half of the list be things that they haven't told us about. So three things (out of the six) that make you happy, but you haven't ever told us. But, please, feel no pressure to accept or to do the meme.

I'll do the meme, with my own added challenge, at the end of this post.

But first I want to also mention that I am joining the Creative Every Day Challenge for 2009, posted by Leah over at her artist's website Creative Every Day. There will be a Mr Linky post weekly over there, so we can all compare notes and encourage each other, and Leah has added monthly themes to act as voluntary inspiration. The first theme (January 2009) will be "Play." I can get into that.

Art Every Day Month, in November, also sponsored by Leah, was such a growth experience for me - a real boost of productivity, which has remained, in part, afterward.

My list of six happymakers:

First, the three that are top of my list - no surprises here...
1. My family, particularly Dearest, Oldest, Daughter and Youngest.
2. Painting.
3. Beauty - in almost any form, but particularly in the human form, in the sky, in trees, and in things humans create.

I wondered that God did not make this first short list - I think I would have mentioned Him (Her?) if someone had asked me this years ago. But I find now that God is in a unique place where happiness is concerned. It's more like God is whom I'm happy AT, when other things make me happy. I have a mental/spiritual gesture of reaching my hand up and putting it in His hand, like I were about four years old. It's something I do when I'm confused, hurt, bothered, afraid - but it's also something I do when I'm full of glee or joy of any kind. I have lain in bed some nights, after Dearest and I have been passionate but now she is asleep, and I have simply glowed there in the dark with deep, inexpressible joy and gratitude, and it's all AT God.

And for the three I've never shared on-line (that last unnumbered item actually qualifies...)... actually I'm going further and reaching for three things I haven't noticed or admitted to myself, even.
4. The shape of the leaves of Scarlet Oak. I smile whenever I see them on the ground in the fall. Other leaf shapes do this - some even more (aspen, ginkgo) but this one isn't one I"ve consciously realized before. It's those wide spread lobes in the middle of the sides. I don't know why it gets to me - but it really does. Nice image here, from a Brooklyn site.
5. Mauve colored clouds. I noticed two days ago that I love mauve colored clouds on a stormy afternoon, when other clouds are slate grey. I have, for most of my life, loathed the color mauve...
6. Letting go and just letting things take their own course. This has been hard for me to do, but I find I love it so much that it's getting easier, and will no doubt creep into more and more parts of my life, to the relief of everyone around me. It's having an effect at home, at work, in my art, and even in my dreams.

Now go ye and be happy, too - and try to find someone big to be happy AT. It's fun.