I have often been a fraidy cat about the simplest things.  I remember back when I was a child and being frightened of leaving home to go to school — it was as if I feared that my family would not be there when I got back from school or that I wouldn’t know what to do in school.  All my life I’ve had similar fears about many things — being able to do a good job and succeed at my work, worrying whether I’d grow up to become an independent individual who could stand on his own two feet.  And, each time with each new worry, I would somehow find a way to master my fears so that they wouldn’t interfere with my life.  I didn’t want to lead a life of fear, I wanted instead a life of joy and accomplishment and for the most part that is what I was able to achieve — although it never was easy for me.

I do believe that deep down each of us is brave in different ways and in different situations.

For example, there is the person who saves another person’s life, such as when someone falls off the subway platform and the other person rescues him.

Then there is the person who finds the courage to leave his or her country in order to go to another land and start a new life.  That person is very brave, too, because starting a new life in a strange land and with a different language is very, very difficult.

Then there’s the person who is very shy, but who leaves the house in the morning to try to find a job and make a living.  He somehow overcomes his fear.

There is the mother  or father who works very long hours at a hard job  in order to earn money to help support the family.  That person is very brave, too.

There is also the person who is afraid of the local bully, but gathers his or her courage to stand up to the bully and tell him off.

So tell me about your own life and the time when you were brave.  What was the brave deed or act you did?   How did you feel – frightened or confident?  Was it hard for you to be brave?

Or, if you wish, write about someone you know who has done a brave deed.  Tell me who that person is and what he or she did.

Remember, too, that being a writer is a brave thing to do — it shows you are willing to think deeply about important things and express them in words that may be read and heard.

There is so much being written today about happiness and efforts also are under way to actually measure how happy people are who live in certain nations and states.   For example, maximizing happiness is a goal in the country of Bhutan, where the measurement is known as Gross National Happiness.   Last year, the Gallup Organization teamed up with a company for a planned 25-year effort to poll 1,000 Americans nearly every day about their health and happiness.  And the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began asking in an annual survey of 350,000 adults, ”In general, how satisfied are you with your life?”  It found, for example, that Louisiana, Hawaii and Florida were the three highest-ranking states in terms of happiness and Michigan, Connecticut and New York were the least happiest .

So, maybe that’s one of the questions for today’s writer’s prompt: How satisfied or happy are you with your life?  Or, better yet,  what are the things that make you happy and content?  And what are the things you need to work on to become happier?  Share with us.

I read about ”The Scar Project” in which an Indian artist, Nadia Myre, leads a hands-on workshop where people write out their ‘’scar stories” — by that I think the stories that leave pain in their hearts — and ‘’sew their wounds shut” using canvas and threat.  The finished stories and canvases are then displayed.  She will be holding such a workshop at the National Museum of the American Indiana on March 6.

This made me think about the scars that each of us have on our bodies and in our hearts and souls, and how we spend our lives carrying these around with us.  It is not easy to write about these painful experiences, but somehow the idea of sewing the wounds shut appeals to me.  But, can we bury our scars or, rather, do we just make peace with them and come to some understanding, that hurt and pain are part of life, just as are love and kindness and hope?

What about you?  What do you think of this project?  Have your own scars healed?  Have they made your stronger or weaker?  What are the ‘’scar stories” you say to yourself?   How have your brought healing into your own life?  How had your overcome adversity?  Please share with us.

John Kelly, writing in the February 1 Washington Post (”This List Is Alive with the Sounds (and Sights) of Simple Pleasures”), pointed out a few of his favorite things guaranteed to life his heart or bring a smile to his face.
As examples, he included seeing a fox walk across a bridge; a dog that jerks its hind leg in its sleep — even ”walking into a public restroom and discovering that is is equipped with actual paper towels, not a dryer that weakly blows lukewarm air on your hands.” Simple things, indeed.

When I think about the simple things that give me pleasure, these come to mind:
.Finding in the flea market an old CD of music by Bach.
.Being greeted by my dog when I come home, she making me feel like a bright light has returned to her life and all is now right in her world.
.My wife lovingly rubbing my neck when it is so stiff that I can hardly turn it.
.Sitting down at the kitchen at night after dinner with a new book in my hands.
.My daughter telling me she loves me.

Now, what about you? What the the simple pleasures in your own life, the ones that make life so rich and yet rarely cost us any money?
Please share with us.

Author Amy Bloom, writing about happiness in The New York Times Book Review Jan. 31, 2010 (”The Rap on Happiness”), says, ”The real problem with happiness…[is] happiness itself. Happiness is like beautify: part of its glory lies in its transience. It is deep but often brief….To hold happiness is to hold the understanding that the world passes away from us, that the petals fall and the beloved dies.” She adds that no matter how much joy we may receive from good times, from, say, experiencing the sun on our faces, nothing can ‘’save us from the adult understanding that it cannot last forever.”

Her words touched me and also saddened me. I am in mourning for an old friend who just died, and the loss of her has shaken both my wife and me and left us with a sense of hopelessness. There is another void in our lives now which we will not be able to fill — her friendship brought happiness to our lives. Her lingering death in a hospice shook me up. It follows the earlier sickness of my own wife during the past year and my own illness the year earlier. I have tried to learn once again to take nothing for granted, including happiness, but to do my best to enjoy whatever good and joy may enter our lives, even if it is only temporary.

But happiness seems to remain elusive at times.

What about you? Are you happy? What makes you happy? When have you been most happy in your own life? Are you able to accept the fact that happiness may not last forever, or have you found a way to be as happy as you can each day?
Please share.

Today is my birthday and it started out beautifully as I opened a friend’s beautiful e-card from which fireworks and balloons sprung out to greet and start off my day in a spectacular way. The card showed one birthday candle waiting to be blown out, and it was very fitting — the one candle signifying to me the start of a new beginning. On your birthday you can feel fresh and maybe reborn a little — anything goes because it’s your special day.
And I thought back to earlier birthdays and the things family and friends did for me to make me feel so special. There always seemed to be good cheer, often a birthday cake with candles, sometimes some lovely presents, and, most important, people’s love. Their love made everything wonderful.
What about you? What is your happiest birthday memory? What are the things you do to celebrate your special day? What would make a perfect birthday for you?
Please share.

Each of us knows someone who is very interesting and exciting to be around.
This person may be very smart, or well read, or very knowledgeable about a subject.
This person may have an interesting job or hobby or tells you stories that capture your imagination. That person may have travelled to many different places.
Perhaps you would like to be like this person. Please describe him or her and tell us what makes that person so special and different from others.

Today you received the most important letter of your life — the one that you had been waiting for so long.
What does the letter say?

I must find hope.
How do YOU find hope for your life.
Please share.

You are texting the most important message of your life.

What does it say?