What happiness is:
- Thick slices of watermelon eaten on the back steps on a summer evening with the juice running down your chin and dripping on the concrete.
- Giving a little girl some blueberries and seeing her grin like you've handed her the key to the world, a new puppy, and all the pixie dust she could ever want.
- Walking outside and feeling the wind across your skin, smelling the rain on the breeze, and hearing the thunder in the mountains.
- Sharing a pint of ice cream and giggles over some cheesy chick flick with your little sister.
- Holding a piece of original art in your hands.
- Freshly mown grass under bare feet on a cool morning.
- Standing at a high point and looking down to see the lights of a city glittering at your feet.
- The flash of lightning striking a mountain.
- The taste of a homemade stuffed sopapilla on a long working day when you're hungry.
- Hearing about the shenanigans your friends are getting up to.
- Being hugged for a gift you made without ever expecting more than a few words of thanks.
- Cool tile against the skin of your bare back.
- Lying in bed and knowing you don't have to get up if you don't want to.
- The sound of rain on a tin roof.
- Damp, foggy mornings with the clouds wreathed around the mountains and the sun turning them pink and gold as it rises.
- Mist coming off old, crooked fence posts after the rain.
- A double rainbow shining on the horizon.
- Your favorite song on the radio as you drive off on an adventure.
- Knowing that you can walk down the street and turn heads, even though you don't always bother to actually do so.
- The thrill of seeing the voices in your head become concrete shapes on paper.
- Quail running across the road when they think nobody is coming.
- The scream of a hawk in a clear blue summer sky.
- Dark clouds rolling in over the mountain, throwing patches of shadow and liquid gold over the valley.
- Seeing a single shaft of sunlight lancing down out of a dark overcast sky.
- The purr of a contented cat.
- Being the shoulder for someone important to you to cry on.
- Getting an entire lunch for just three dollars, and dreaming of the next time you'll be able to buy such food food.
- Being loved, in any way, by anyone, for any reason.
- The feeling of having a plan.
- Cresting a hill and seeing the road and the world laid out before you, just waiting to be taken.
- Simply being.
