What are You Grateful for in Life?

I mean for you to really think about it, and often. Josh and I share two things that we're grateful for each day as we lie down to sleep. We try to focus on bigger things relating to our family and friends or our own souls' smiles, but sometimes we're just happy to have gotten a tricky work assignment taken care of or the house cleaned. It turns out that considering how great some things are is one ticket to being happy in life.

Last night, we were fortunate to find a couple of extra hours in our evening without plans. We turned to the top of our old TV looking for the ever-present Netflix movie taunting us and waiting patiently to be watched. Typically, movies sit and wait for us to get to them for months, but last night there was nothing there. Worried that someone stole a movie out of our mailbox (because for some silly reason that was more plausible to us than the truth), we turned to the Internet and found that our on-line queue had run out months ago. We hadn't even noticed. So, we browsed the instant watch options.

We came across a film simply called: Happy. It had been recommended to us recently, so we gave it a whirl. It looks at happiness levels in different cultures around the world. As travelers, we've already learned that a lot of people who we Americans would think must be miserable because they have so little are actually quite content in life. This wasn't a new message for us, but it's worth revisiting often. Reviewing behaviors that lead to the opposite of happy is also a good thing to keep our eyes on lest we drain our own glass to half empty.

We're soaking in some glass-half-full days recently, but that doesn't mean we don't need reminders to know that we're pretty darn lucky. Keeping the right perspective on how great the rest of our lives are helps to make up some imbalances on the happy index when we get lost in thoughts of our history with trying to grow our family. It's always worth noting that while our immediate family under one roof has maintained a constant of two, our extended "family" has grown leaps and bounds in recent years. Thanks to all of you for contributing to one of the key ingredients to creating true happiness, our community.

Enjoy the film when you have some time: http://www.thehappymovie.com/
(Available for download to watch instantly on Netflix and lasting only a quick 76 minutes.)