14,000 Things To Be Happy About

My mom bought me the most wonderful book back when I was admitted to Stanford for my bone marrow transplant. The first day I was there, before I was confined to my room, she pushed me in the wheel chair down to the gift shop. Stanford's gift shop is amazing. We found this book by Barbara Ann Kipfer, "14,000 THINGS TO BE HAPPY ABOUT." It's just a collection of random things that made her happy. She would record them in notebooks. It is such a nice escape and it really doesn't lighten the load and make you smile. I wnt through the book one time and marked everything that made me smile. Then I went back a year later and did it again. It's so interesting how you can mark different things at different times. I guess based on your current place in your life. Unfortunately my original copy was lost, but I've since replaced it. I just finished marking this copy and it's taken quite a while to get through it. I am looking forward to going back through it again. This book is so special to me and I love sharing it with others. She also has other books: 8,789 WORDS OF WISDOM, THE WISH LIST , THE ORDER OF THINGS and more. Here are some items listed in the book...


dyeing your hair its natural color
something hand-painted
pima cotton
a fireplace big enough to stand in
a time you would like to live over just as it was
a poker game for the unwary
a photography medium that scatters light
reflection and reasoning
loose-leaf notebooks
the silent question "Why?"
puppetry
dirt farming
the smell of rain-washed hair
shuffling across the riffles of a country stream
cleaning out your wallet, purse
fountain pens and fresh paper
a small turret room at the top of the stairs
the itch that means healing has started
putting together a picnic basket
satirical passages
the leisurely feeling of New England's coastal towns
a free jukebox
a stainless-steel martini shaker
weeding between the patio rocks
a bagless vacuum cleaner
cranberry relish
seeing Haleakala Crater on Maui
a nice family movie
dividing your books into daily reading portions
a lucky fisherman
going to the family reunion
cottage cheese containers