I do not pursue wealth and fame and all those other things the pagans run after. Maybe that is because I have learned to celebrate tiny successes and happy surprises every day.
The following run-of-the-mill experiences always lift my spirits and make me smile.
- Seeing my car’s fuel indicator sitting on “F” instead of on “E” because my husband filled the tank the last time he drove the car.
- Thinking I was wrong about something and finding out I was actually right.
- Calling a credit card’s toll-free number and hearing the recorded voice say, “Your current unpaid balance is zero dollars and zero cents.”
- Completing and checking off the final item on my to-do list.
- Finding that my checkbook balance agrees with the bank’s balance.
- Sleeping on clean sheets.
- Remembering to mail a birthday card on exactly the right date.
- Locating whatever it is I’ve spent the last half hour searching for, usually my phone.
- Giving myself liberty to abuse the English language. I enjoy violating the rule that says a preposition is a word you should never end a sentence with.
- Walking into a store or restaurant and hearing a Neil Diamond song playing on the speaker.
- Standing in a department store’s dressing room and saying to the sales assistant, “Please bring me these same jeans in a smaller size.”
- Hearing a high-paid newscaster fumble with the use of the pronouns who and whom.
- Discovering I am the youngest person in a room.
- Experiencing merriment when I discover exactly the right word to use when constructing a sentence, as I did with the word merriment in this sentence.
- Hearing my dentist say, as she unsnaps my bib, “Everything looks great. You’re outta here!”
- Arriving at church early.
- Finding a Dilly Bar in the freezer when I thought the grandkids had eaten all of them.
- Pulling from my mailbox, along with bills, sales papers, and junk mail, an actual check. Even if the check is for less than $10, it is still a check.
- Knowing the words to every song we sing during a church service.
- Hearing James Taylor sing the word “lovely” and give it three syllables.
- Handing a cashier the exact change, right down to the penny, when I make a purchase.
- Realizing I can meet my deadline for posting a new blog by simply making a list of things that make me smile.
The Happy Geranium 
I like how you contrasted your smile promptings with the last blog. You live a balanced life, my friend!
Love this, Deb. I can especially relate to the one regarding ending sentences with prepositions. Ip
I can remember how frustrated I was in college when I would ask where something was “at” and my roommate never passed up the opportunity to say, “behind the at”!
Ha! Ha! That’s a funny story, Barbara. Thank you for sharing it with my readers and me. 🙂
The little things are priceless. Your blog is one of my little things.
Thank you so much, Shirley. 🙂
That post was lov-e-ly.
Th-ank you.
Going to see James Taylor this summer at Wrigley Field. Also going to see Neil Diamond in May. You’re probably too young to know who these guys are.
I have always wondered “who” came up with the grammar rule of not ending a sentence in a proposition! I try so hard to do that right, sometimes flip-flopping the whole sentence around, or spinning my wheels for what seems like an eternity to just try to re-word the whole sentence. And the latest grammar change I’ve wondered about… “who” mandated the omission of the last comma in a series of nouns or adjectives before the conjunction? Now that’s just plain silly, frustrating, and aggravating! (Okay, see, I used that comma because I happen not to agree with “who” came up with that rule.) And why am I rambling on about grammar rules? Honestly, Debbie, I think I want to go get a dilly bar!
I feel your pain regarding the ever-changing grammar and punctuation rules. An occasional Dilly Bar never hurts!