If you want to be happy, think happy, stay happy
I love this quote and found a great site that has printables, calligraphy, ideas and happy things, that really go well with the messages on my blog. Click on the title and you will be magically whisked away to this wonderful website called, HAPPY HANDS PROJECT.
I want to share a message about what I think this means, but I am too tired to write it tonight, so tomorrow will be the day. Check back in with me to see what I have come up with.
This morning, as I was contemplating about what I might share on this blog today, I decided that the way to stay happy is to think happy, and to go out and do something to make someone happy, and that I did today.
This story begins about 30 years ago when I was a young married woman, and had 3 little children. We lived in a cute little neighborhood and people were friendly. One day at church, noticed a cute little old man who sat alone but always seemed to have a smile on his face. I determined that I needed to meet him so one day, after finding out where he lived, I took my little children on a walk to meet Quayle Munson. He lived by the park, so my kids were all too happy to go meet him if we could stop off at the park as well. We knocked on his door, and after what seemed to be a very long time, the door opened and a surprised Quayle Munson answered the door. We introduced ourselves to him and told him we had noticed him at church and wanted to meet him. He invited us in and this began a good friendship with this cute little old man.
We learned that he was in his 80's, and his wife had died many years before. He did not have any children living instate, so he didn't see them very much. He had pictures all over his house of his wife and children and I could tell he loved them dearly. Over time, we learned a lot about this little man as we adopted him as sort of a surrogate grandpa. He had something unique in his house that he loved to show off and that was his bathtub. I can't remember if it was orange or red, but he considered it his claim to fame because nobody had a colored bathtub. My kids asked to see his bathtub every time we visited and he was only too happy to oblige.
We nurtured our friendship with this kindly old gentlemen in many different ways. We baked him cookies, invited him to our house for dinner and had lots of visits to his house. We really enjoyed his company and he always had a story to tell to my children. This friendship went on for 2 years, until my husband was offered a great position in his company in a different state, and we put out house up for sale, and prepared to move.
When we visited Mr. Munson to tell him we would be moving soon, tears filled his eyes and it made him very sad. I told him that we would still write to him and when we came back for visits, we would come visit him. He hugged each of us and told us that he would really miss us, and that he had something he wanted to give to us to remember him. We were standing at his front door, and when he returned to the door, he had in his hands a set of 4 dinner plates. He then went on to tell us the story about them. He told us that his wife had worked for a short time in the White House in Washington D.C., when Richard Nixon was serving as president. He said that his wife worked in the kitchen, though I don't recall exactly what she did. When she left that position, she was given as a going away gift, these 4 dinner plates, that were used as everyday china, that the Nixon family ate their dinner on. Besides these two plates, he went and retrieved some cut glass water goblets, that were also used by the Nixon Family.
We were all quite taken back by this amazing gift. I felt very much hesitant to accept such a gift as it was precious to him because it belonged to his deceased wife, and also had some pretty interesting heritage behind them. He insisted, and we thanked and hugged him and left a tear filled little man, watching us walk home.
I have kept these dishes for 30 years, remembering this wonderful little old man that we had a fabulous friendship with. Recently, I had occasion to think about when I die, who might inherit such a treasure, and determined that I needed to try to find his family, and give it to them. I love to research on the Internet and used some of my genealogy search tools as well as my private eye abilities, and eventually found the name of his wife and children. It took many hours but I also found the names of his grandchildren, who are still living today. One of them happened to be a Dentist in California and his office contact information was on the Internet. So.. this morning I made a phone call to this dentist, and it happened that his patient had not yet arrived, so I was able to speak with him and tell him this whole story and offer to him a family treasure. In our conversation, we exchanged contact information and I told him if he or any of Mr. Quayle Munson's grandchildren were to be in my area of the world, to please drop by and they could claim these historically valuable and personally connected dishes and goblets of his Grandfather and Grandmothers.
After hanging up the phone, I cannot tell you how happy I felt to give such a gift. I could have kept them and even sold them and made a pretty penny, but the value I received for giving them away to someone who valued them in a way that I did, was worth it.
To sum this all up, if you want to stay happy, then think happy thoughts and go out and do something for someone who needs it. Find joy in the giving, and receive the happiness that is a natural result of doing something good.
