“Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder.”

                                                                                                                        Henry David Thoreau

This is my favorite quote regarding happiness. I have known a few people in my life who seemed to have it all, except they seemed like they could never be satiated. Some were glum and acted as though they had given up. Some were angry that the life they had envisioned for themselves simply never arrived despite all their gallant efforts.

My father was a simple dairy farmer. I learned happiness lessons from him early on. It was all about attitude! He sang as he worked. He sang happy, quirky songs, not the Blues. I remember him singing:

 Oh what a beautiful morning

 Oh what a beautiful day,

I’ve got a wonderful feeling,

Everything’s going my way

To this day, I sometimes sing it and it always makes me smile and gives me a surge of his love even though he hasn’t been around in years My father was not a singing fool. He achieved a small fortune by investing the sweat- of -his- brow- farm- profits into the stock market. He enjoyed simple pleasures like dessert, especially ice cream  and watching crowds at the county fairs and walks on the beach with his kids when he could get there a couple times a month and the fireworks on the Fourth of July and weekly Saturday suppers with his brothers and their families at the ranch house and arguing and teasing my mother in his own German Swiss way; singing and laughing and being present with family and friends and walking out when he felt like it. I always thought it was probably to have some alone time to have his own daydreams and schemes and to chat with God (which he taught me to do,too)

So, this one’s for you, Pop. When I think of “happiness” you are the first person I think of. I know what a great gift it was to have you as a father and guardian. The butterfly was always close by and it taught me to get on with my life and just let it be…and I do, and remarkably like you, I am happy, too!