If you scan the self-help section at your local bookstore, you'll likely find many titles promising a variety of ways to achieve that simple yet seemingly endless quest: the pursuit of happiness. To find tried-and-true ways to lift spirits, we asked CanadianLiving.com readers to tell us about what makes them content.
From simple instant boosts to profound, lasting sources of joy, your submissions made our days a little brighter. We hope they have the same smile-inducing effects on you.
A list of pleasures
• Hearing my sister was cancer free!
• Having my brother marry his sweetheart.
• How happy my dog is to see me when I come home from work.
• Seeing people sing along to the radio in their cars while I head home from work - their windows are up and I have no idea what they are singing but they look like they are having fun.
• A kiss from my boyfriend.
• Hearing a child giggle.
• Having a very cosy "full" bed on a Saturday morning -- boyfriend, dog, cat and me.
• Hearing my cat purring away while he eats.
• My flannel sheets.
• My fleece pjs.
• Chocolate.
• Two elderly people holding hands.
• A rainbow.
• Great big snowflakes falling to the ground on a sunny winter day.
• Fridays at 5 p.m.
• I could go on and on. Ha ha! Cheers.
-- Susan Graham, Kanata, Ont.
Modern communication
What brings a smile to my face? Technology. Thanks to technology I can talk to my daughter every day by e-mail or through MSN Messenger. She and her family moved across the country in August but they seem so much closer because we use our Web cams and I can see them and talk to them so it seems to shorten the distance between us.
I often think of how my mother would have liked to have had this kind of opportunity to talk to my brother who lived in Ontario and only came home on summer vacations. They kept in contact by letters but for me, to be able to sit down at the computer and instantly talk to my daughter hundreds of miles away is something my mother would have envied. I just wish it had been available in her time. Thank goodness it's available in mine.
-- Elaine Downing Armstrong
Page 1 of 3 -- How would you describe the importance of family? Read on to discover the joys of parenthood on page 2
