Handbook to Happiness

I used to live up in Madison, Wisconsin. It was so cold! Before I left Virginia I couldn't imagine how anyone could live up there. Then I lived there and it was so cold I couldn't imagine how anyone could live up there.

I got kicked out of school (why I ventured North at all). Living as a punk/hippie hybrid, I favored a walk way out on the frozen Lake Mendota, way way out crunch crunch crunch crunch until Madison was just a dream, a mirage in the Northern dusk. The lake ice would groan and crack, ping and sing.

I was plenty awake, then.

Once I trudged a down-laden trail into a hard steady gale, at night, away and out.

It was very, very cold. But I was longing, and numb to cold that night. I wanted to find something, I wanted to leave this world and find another that I could feel but not find. The beer can froze to my hand. I kept walking.

I found nothing- just dark, and wind, and ice, and the cold. But it was enough, and the sheer elemental force of that lake world and Winter Ice-burned the city-sleep away and I stood reborn…………….

…………………and turned around, now with that wind pacing at my back. After an hour of frozen tears. I started to run towards the warming city glow, and realized that the surface of the lake was wind blown such as lakes will be, and there was a pattern- 20-40 feet of smooth black ice, then a couple feet of snow drift, crusty and low. I could get a few steps of purchase on the snow, and Wheeeeeeeeeeee a 20 foot glide, two quick steps on the next snow patch and Wheeeeeeeeeeeee, a thirty foot glide, on an on, all the way back to town.

With a 30 mile an hour gale at my back.

Yeah, it was fun. Back then I had this book by Ken Keyes, “Handbook to Happiness” with gems like

“You add as much suffering to the world in taking offense as giving it”.

Stuff like that, good stuff and I loved that book.

So, when I saw these Ten Steps to Happiness yesterday (thanks Kate) I remembered that book and the Lake and the ice all as a piece of everything this morning, so here they are. And I have to say is memorize these suckers or stick 'em on the fridge or freeze each one in a separate cube in the ice tray.

Then pray for hot weather. They do promise relief! Here they are! All bone-fide and boiled down to basics!


The 10 steps to happiness

Plant something and nurture it
Count your blessings - at least five - at the end of each day
Take time to talk - have an hour-long conversation with a loved one each week
Phone a friend whom you have not spoken to for a while and arrange to meet up
Give yourself a treat every day and take the time to really enjoy it
Have a good laugh at least once a day
Get physical - exercise for half an hour three times a week
Smile at and/or say hello to a stranger at least once each day
Cut your TV viewing by half
Spread some kindness - do a good turn for someone every day


Above is a moto, “Undersea” I warmed up a bit to melt any ice! Spring is starting to vibe it up out there!

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Tagged with: eyes in the pine, archaic revoloution, ten steps to happiness, Soul, Integral, feminine principle, nature, shamanism