Wild Geese And Open Doors

When one door of happiness closes, another opens;  but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.
—     Helen Keller
Happiness in this world, when it comes, comes incidentally.  Make it the object of pursuit, and it leads us a wild-goose chase, and is never attained.  Follow some other object, and very possibly we may find that we have caught happiness, without dreaming of it;  but likely enough it is gone the moment we say to ourselves, ‘Here it is!’ like the chest of gold that treasure-seekers find.
—     Nathaniel Hawthorne
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On This Day In:
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2019	Senate Republicans: Impeachment – Because It Is Right!
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2018	Intensity Doesn’t Make It Correct
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2017	Proof Sits In The Oval Office
2016	Tragic Determinism
2015	Maybe It Should Be Clearer
2014	Make It Your Strength
2013	Four Score
2012	The Ruler
2011	Forever
2010	Just Cuz
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Moments Make A Lifetime

Happy Birthday, Bec!
Be happy for this moment.  This moment is your life.
—     Omar Khayyam
And congratulations (again) on starting the new job and being unopposed for re-election to the College Board!
We love you always,
Mum and Dad
XXX 00 X
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On This Day In:
2021	Strong Women Make Them Too
	Gather Moments
2020	Another Opportunity
	Stand Up, Shout Out
2019	Birthday Gifts For Our Daughter
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2018	Seeking To Make A Difference
2017	Happy BD, Bec!
2016	BD Quotes
2015	Princess
2014	Optional
2013	Happy Birthday, Rebecca
2012	Be Not Old
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2011	What Kind Of Work Do You Do?
2010	Another Loser… And Come November

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The Grand Essentials

The grand essentials of happiness are:  something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.
—     Allan Chalmers
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On This Day In:
2021	Adding Spice
	Be Who You Must
2020	Mo, Cilla, Mushy Peas And Rain
	No New Wars
2019	An Epitaph For #45 (#LyingDonald)
2018	Before And After
2017	Verbs
2016	Not Too Tidy
2015	Little Understanding
2014	Open Early
2013	Movies And A Lifetime Of Lyrics
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2012	Cheaper To Hold
2011	Resistance Is Futile
	One Great, One Enjoyable, One Terrible…
	Unfortunately, No Approval Is Required

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Particularly Peaceful Neighbors

Make happy those who are near, and those who are far will come.
—     Chinese Proverb
[Hopefully, this is what China advised Putin before he invaded Ukraine.  If they did, he should have listened to their advice.  (And, no, I don’t really think they said this to him.)    —    KMAB]
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On This Day In:
2021	Thoughts
	It’s A Rich Man’s World
2020	Pax Et Justitia
2019	And Unlawful Orders From A President
2018	Instinct For Presence
2017	Hard Enough
2016	Jumps
2015	One View Of Failure
2014	We Speak For Earth
2013	Inward Urgency
2012	Delayed Reviews
	Fulfilling My Duty
2011	Interference

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A Happy Realization

Happiness is the realization of God in the heart.  Happiness is the result of praise and thanksgiving, of faith and acceptance;  a quiet, tranquil realization of the love of God.
—     Chief White Eagle
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On This Day In:
2021	Is Science Cumulative?
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2020	Where #45 Is Leading The Republican Party
2019	Your Own Blog Posts
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2018	Choose Goodness
2017	Developing Translations
2016	Think Like A Hero
2015	Reductionism
2014	Gravitation, n.
2013	Ups And Downs
2012	Nerd Heard – And Good-Bye
	Your Continuum
2011	Career Tips (Part 2)

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A Loss Of Happiness

My mind has changed during the last twenty or thirty years…  Poetry of many kinds… gave me great pleasure…  Pictures gave me considerable, and music very great delight…  But now for many years I cannot endure to read a line of poetry…  Music generally sets me thinking too energetically on what I have been at work on, instead of giving me pleasure.  I retain some taste for fine scenery, but it does not cause me the exquisite delight which it formerly did.
…
My mind seems to have become a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts, but why this should have caused the atrophy of that part of the brain alone, on which the higher tastes depend, I cannot conceive.  A man with a mind more highly organised or better constituted than mine, would not, I suppose, have thus suffered;  and if I had to live my life again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once every week;  for perhaps the parts of my brain now atrophied would thus have been kept active through use.  The loss of these tastes is a loss of happiness, and may possibly be injurious to the intellect, and more probably to the moral character, by enfeebling the emotional part of our nature.
—     Charles Darwin
From:  “The Autobiography of Charles Darwin: 1809-1882“
[Originally found at one of the blogs / websites I follow:  https://www.themarginalian.org/
The specific post is:  https://www.themarginalian.org/2021/11/28/darwin-life/
Please visit the original site if you have a some time…    —    KMAB]
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On This Day In:
2020	Wear A Damn Mask!
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2019	A Surprisingly Good Way
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2018	Weight / Health Update
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2017	The Great Leveler
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2016	Election + 1 Month
2015	Dance And Sing
2014	A Measuring Stick For Progress
2013	Courtly Love Or Victory Over Habit
2012	Have We Met?
2011	Efficiently Useless

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Why Republicans Are Unhappy

It is necessary to the happiness of a man that he be mentally faithful to himself.  Infidelity does not consist in believing or in disbelieving, it consists in professing to believe what one does not believe.
—     Thomas Paine
[If Republicans believe in Democracy and the right of the people to choose their government’s leaders, why have they spent almost ten months denying the results of (and trying to overturn) an election they lost so decisively?  And why have they spent the same amount of time trying to limit the ability of voters to vote in future elections?  Maybe T. Paine has explained the unhappiness (and rage) of current Republicans.  When will the true political conservatives stand up and challenge the crazies who have taken over their party?  Lord knows, they’ve been wandering in the dessert for over forty years now…    —    kmab]
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On This Day In:
2021	Why Republicans Are Unhappy
	I Guess It’s True
2020	A Tiny And Fragile World
	Your Lyin’ Eyes
2019	Day 1: Done
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2018	I Put It Down To Bad Teachers
	Day 34: In And Out
2017	And The Future Is Now
2016	I Am
2015	Positively Aiming Higher
2014	Suspicious Minds
2013	We Are Not Alone
2012	Lawyer, n.
2011	Each Day Remember…
2010	Impossible Dreams of Camelot

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Or The Person You Love

Happiness is to hold flowers in both hands.
—    Japanese Proverb
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On This Day In:
2020	The Chain Must Be Broken
	Back To Me…
2019	Love Like This…
2018	Open Hearts Find Strength
	Day 32: Planning The Future
2017	Thinking Out Loud
2016	Fighting Change
2015	Get Change
2014	Trapped (Again)
2013	Someone Else Believes
2012	The Practical Value of Science
2011	Seize Gladly The Difficult Task
	A Constitutional Conversation
2010	The Fierce Urgency Of Now…

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Your First Important Clue

That is the first important clue to your life design — the discovery of what you’ll be happiest doing.
—     Barbara Sher
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On This Day In:
2020	Stand First
	RNC: Day 1 Thought
2019	Tough Values
2018	I’m Still Here
	Day 31: A Calendar Month
2017	Start Typing
2016	Just Saying (Nothing)
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2015	A Terrifying Cycle
2014	Rights
2013	Do Bold Things
2012	Seven Causes
2011	I Feel A Tingle Coming On

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Bringing It

There is no value in life except what you choose to place upon it, and no happiness in any place except what you bring to yourself.
—    Henry David Thoreau
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On This Day In:
2020	Me Neither
2019	Have Forever
2018	Fear, Racism And Greed
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	Very Nearly
2017	We Can Figure This Out
2016	Just Enough
2015	Bourne Bond
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2014	Brains First
2013	Not Listening Anymore
2012	At Your Marks!
2011	We Are Not Alone
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2010	Is the Obama Administration Failing?
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	Actually, It’s All About Me…

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Maybe He Agreed With His Mum

We can only be happy when we don’t assume that the object of life is happiness.
―    George Orwell
When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life.  When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up.  I wrote down ‘happy’.  They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.
―    John Lennon
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On This Day In:
2020	Imagine Existence
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2019	Voices Of The Past
2018	Sunrises, Rainbows And Newborn Babies
2017	Untold Agony
2016	Just Borrowed
2015	Warning
2014	Always More Productive
2013	Is Not
2012	Loosely Translated
2011	Your Opinions Are Not My Facts

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Awakening The Glow

When you have once seen the glow of happiness on the face of a beloved person, you know that a man can have no vocation but to awaken that light on the faces surrounding him
—    Albert Camus
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On This Day In:
2020	Golden Eagle
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2019	#45: Who Lost By Three Million Votes
2018	Torn Between Two Loves
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2017	I Think They Are Starting To…
2016	Living There
2015	Bookin’ West
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2014	Winning?
2013	Still Inventing
2012	Motivated
2011	Waiting In Line At Starbuck’s

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Seeking Happiness

Love alone is the only reasonable activity or pursuit of humankind . . .   For love not only annihilates our fear of meaningless but empowers us to seek the happiness of others.   And this indeed is our greatest happiness.
—    Leo Tolstoy
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On This Day In:
2020	Expectation For The Near Future
2019	Indian Myth
	Did He Even Have The Courage To Ask?
2018	Nothing
2017	Approval First
2016	In Search Of Words
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2015	At What Price?
2014	Intricate And Subtle Order
2013	Attention To Detail
2012	Aequanimitas!
2011	Consider This

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Blessings Larger Than Life

The giver is bigger than the receiver.  If you want to be large, larger than life, learn to Give.  Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get – only with what you are expecting to give – which is everything.
The importance of giving, blessing others can never be over emphasized because there’s always joy in giving.  Learn to make someone happy by acts of giving.
—    Katharine Hepburn
(This quote was found on Facebook)
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On This Day In:
2020	The Sun Came Out
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2019	The Importance Of A Deadline
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2018	History Will Judge Harshly
	Father Time, Perhaps?
2017	Odds Are
2016	Prayer, Too
2015	History, n.
2014	See It Sometime
2013	Precious Friend
2012	It Couldn’t Be Done
	Feeling Surrounded?
2011	Surprise!

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Little And Large Choices

Decide that Joy is the hue you want your heart to be.  Then start making the little and large choices that over time will paint your heart happy.
—    Thomas Kinkade
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On This Day In:
2020	When?
2019	Two Guides
2018	A Call For You
2017	Because I Read
2016	On What Matters…
2015	Social Security
2014	Bewitching
2013	Visiting Joy
2012	Dedication To Today
2011	Project Second Chance – Adult Literacy
	Turning Coal Into Diamonds

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