I am happy because it was a beautiful Spring day here in Indiana.
I am happy because I listened to Andrea Bocelli sing “Amor ti Vieta”
I am happy because I watched the movie “Tortilla Soup”. If you enjoy food preparation and Hispanic culture, you will love this film. If there was a button on the remote that allowed me to enter into the drama of the family, I would have pressed it gladly.
my wife
my kids
my grandkids
wife
dog
spring
That’s interesting, Bill. Have you seen a book by Masaru Emoto called The Hidden Messages in Water? While my inner cynic says there’s something a bit pet-rockish about this, I’m intrigued by the photographs of water crystals which have apparently reacted favorably to positive concepts and images, and unfavorably to negative ones.
The most unifying and crystalizing words seem to be Gratitude and Love, with a stronger emphasis on Gratitude.
If Love is our actions, then it’s Gratitude–or an appreciative and open attitude of heart–that is often a missing ingredient.
Interestingly, you can appreciate anything. Right now, I’m appreciating Cheerios with bananas and soymilk.
A friend of mine mentioned the book “The Hidden Messages in Water.” The scientific part of me says it probably has more to do with energy of the person manipulating the water than anything about the message. Perhaps one way to do it scientifically is to do double blind studies with people writing in unfamiliar languages. That way the person writing would not know what word is being written, it would be the symbol itself.
Of course, that may be the entire point, that a person focusing on a word or concept has a real, tangible, effect on the physical world.
I am convinced that there is a genetic predisposition to happiness. Some people are “born” happy, others have to work at it. Early childhood experiences also can have a profound impact on a person’s attitudes towards the world. Given all of that, I do believe almost any person can develop the happiness habit. For some it maybe as difficult as learning to play a musical instrument well, requiring daily practice, reinforcement, and role models. I find myself in this latter group. I am getting there, but it has been a long, often times dark and lonely road.
I’m with you on this one, but I tend more to get annoyed when someone fails to pronounce it. Maybe I need to take your more positive approach and appreciate the ones who do get it right.
As for my list:
Seeing altruistic behavior. Even little things are great, but seeing someone give up something they want to help another person is tops. I even respond to it in fiction. I got all teary-eyed the second time Buffy died. 
Learning something new. I especially like bits of theory that tie together facts that previously seemed unrelated.
Playing music–especially with other people. Living in near isolation as I do, this has become much more significant to me over the past several years.
Since a_d has already cheated and suffered no apparent retalliation, I’ll add:
According to the book, the experiments were done double blind.
When one of my students performs well
A good book
THe foolish hope that someday I will not be quite as alone as I feel at present.
#4: It makes me happy that SOMEBODY wants to play the Union pipes and make all that great racket, but that it’s not me!!!
Now I am really curious, I went to Amazon and some of the reviewers are bashing this book. Some of them are obvious sock-puppets with made up names like a spammer might use and few other Amazon reviews. The wall of hatred is startling to me, but the “anti-anti” people thrive on the Internet. These are the people that are against everything and for nothing. They are always right and always carry a chip of self-righteous indignation. They tend not to be very good company 
.
The author’s credentials are not scientifically credible. I would like more credible scientists to try and replicate the results, but will not hold my breath because of the subject matter. It would take either a naive, a brave, or an old curmudgeon of a scientist to take on this type of project and risk becoming a pariah.
I will look for the book at the library. Thanks for posting about it.
Are you sure it doesn’t make you “appy”? 
Same thing about the word “huge.”
Tom
Yes!! Seemingly educated people have bought into this myth that ‘an’ preceeds ANY word starting with ‘H’ but the rule isn’t based on spelling at all. Maybe it’s just intellectual slang.
Just the opposite for me… I think the “an” lets the “h” in “historic” roll off the tongue better. To my ears, it just sounds right. Although it may be just that I both appreciate and like to bend rules.
My three:
1 - my wonderful, loving, quirky, never boring, diversely talented, and remarkably opinionated (*imagine that!) family.
and… Spring! Birds’ beauty and song! Affectionate four-legged’s! Wild four-leggeds! Enough work to more than pay the bills! Being able to walk! The incredible diversity of the world!
and… the incredible friends I’ve been able to meet online that I might never have encountered in “real life” at all.
I like the H in herbs.
What about “Enry Iggins?”
I wouldn’t say I ate im, but e aint alf the man I thought e was.
Cran, thanks for posting this one. When I was little, my mom would ask us every night as we went to bed to tell our three happy things of the day. A good way to lead into sweet dreams.
These are my three happy things of today. Hard to thin it to just three.
hearing my daughter play her fiddle before breakfast
ice on puddles to crunch with my feet
a new jig in my head. Traditional music had been dormant for me up until about four years ago, when I heard a radio show with live concertina performance. I remember hooting with joy at the sound, and a sudden realization of happiness. Now I’m in it. Thanks to this forum and all you folks, in great part. I’m glad you’re all here.
Jennie
You love that to!?! 
Unfortunately, have only been able to do that a handful of times in my life, not many ocean beaches in Utah. I even collect beach/ocean front sand. (Strange thing to collect perhaps, but I think sand is totally facinating!) Put it in little labeled bottles and display them on a shelf. So far, I have seven sands from different beaches, two quite similar and the rest very different from each other. Some of my favorite good dreams involve walking along a beach picking up shells and collecting sand.
Oh yeah… happy things… (In no paticular order.)
family
accomplishing something worthwhile and of good
the genealogy library in Salt Lake City
friends
favorite music
my religion (and things related to that)
a good book
ocean beaches
spring time flowers and fall leaves
thunderstorms
(Guess we’d better cut it off there… sorry, couldn’t decide on a top three right off)
Sara
Cold nights, sleeping snuggled up with my wife under a stack of quilts she made, with our two cats curled up on the foot of the bed like living foot-warmers, and the dog asleep on the rug next to the bed, snoring gently.
Hiking up a mountain through thick fog and mist, then suddenly climbing out into the sunshine to see an ocean of white clouds below, like glaciers surrounding the mountain peaks.
Paddling across water as smooth as glass on a bright, sunny day, harbor seals popping up to watch as I drift by, osprey and eagles soaring overhead.
Cheers,
John