Misquote the Carpenters

I've read several posts on other blogs lately about happiness. The kind of happiness that comes when everything in your life is happening exactly how you want it to, when, to quote the Carpenters (whose songs sometimes reflect my life more than I'd like), you're on the top of the world looking down on creation. This kind of feeling doesn't come along very often, and seems to be based on being in love.

I don't have this kind of happiness. I'm not on the top of the world. I'm not in love with anyone, my job is not what I'd want it to be, and my life at twenty-seven isn't what I would've imagined for myself when I was eighteen or twenty-two.

But . . . I'm happy. An ordinary, everyday life kind of happiness. The kind of happiness that allows me to appreciate sunny days and Fridays (to misquote Karen C.), dinner with a friend, a good story idea, a song, morning in bed, a job well done.

It's a good feeling, and I wish I knew how to keep it.

I think I'm in the middle of the world, looking around at creation.