Recipe for happiness:
Stay close to people who love you.
Smile frequently.
Laugh often.
Practice kindness.
Find peaceful moments.
Day: April 6, 2021
🌾 Today’s Poem ~ Bright Star, Would I Were Steadfast As Thou Art
Bright Star, Would I Were Steadfast As Thou Art
John Keats
Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art—
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature’s patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth’s human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors—
No—yet still steadfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow’d upon my fair love’s ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever—or else swoon to death.
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature’s patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth’s human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors—
No—yet still steadfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow’d upon my fair love’s ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever—or else swoon to death.
🍎 Today’s Health Question ~ Does a Positive Attitude Lead to Longevity?
Cast off the Negative Vibes – Crank Up the Positive Beats
A 30-year study of 447 people at the Mayo Clinic found that optimists had around a 50 percent lower risk of early death than pessimists. The study’s conclusion? “[M]ind and body are linked and attitude has an impact on the final outcome — death.”
This was further compounded by a Yale study that asked 660 elderly people whether they agreed that we become less useful as we age. Those who didn’t agree, and therefore had the most positive attitude about aging, lived an average of 7.5 years longer than those with the most negative attitudes, who did agree that we become less useful as we age.
✒️ Writers’ Wisdom ~ Free Your Creative Self
“It is our stories that will recreate us, when we are torn, hurt, even destroyed. It is the storyteller, the dream-maker, the myth-maker, that is our phoenix, that represents us at our best, and at our most creative.” ~ Doris Lessing
🤗 A Better Life ~ The Happiest People I know
The happiest people I know have an inner sense of what to do at any given moment. They simultaneously balance involvement with others and the quiet space they need. They view events from a detached position and are not carried away by them.
🌞 Today’s Inspiration ~ Don’t Think of Quitting
“I have failed at many things, but I have never been afraid.” ~ Nadine Gordimer
👊 Today’s Power Thought ~ Play the Cards You Hold
Our circumstances may not be what we want; they are the circumstances we have. Work with them. Turn the circumstances into your advantage.
Today’s Smile 😃
Joe: “My girlfriend and I took a skiing vacation.”
Pete: “How did it go?”
Joe: “It started off well, but went rapidly downhill.
