Weekly Photo Challenge: “Happy”

Well, here it is. Another opportunity to think, create, and post. So here is my Second Photo Challenge: What makes me Happy? That’s a loaded question, but what fun I had coming up what to share with you.

There are many things that make me happy and causes me to smile inwardly as well as outwardly. Here are just a few:

LAVENDER: smelling, growing and visiting lavender farms; TURTLES: spotting turtles at the beach; HULA: learning, watching and participating; WILD BLACKBERRIES: picking wild blackberries and eating the harvest; GARDENING: growing and sharing plants, flowers and vegetables.

These are just a few things that I enjoy that make me happy. I have fond memories in each of the categories listed and displayed below. I also have just as many more categories or things that I could share which in itself makes me happy too!

Just thinking about what makes me happy, makes me happy!!

Life is full of many things some good and some not so good. It is not just one or the other. It is a mixture of both. When I take the time to reflect, I can always find something that makes me smile. Even on a “rainy” day…cuz rain helps vegetation to grow. Even on a cloudy day…cuz outta the clouds sometimes you’ll find the most beautiful rainbow.

If you’re in the right spot and have the right perspective, that rainbow can even be double. In the oddest places…Yes, quite amazing.

During a tough time in your life, you may be introduced to support and encouragement that you never thought you had. Bright spots coming through the cracks and crevices.

Yet, some things are just plain obvious and outright joyful. Everyone has common joys and experiences of happiness. But there are those that are specific to just you. Those are very precious, priceless and nothing could compare.

Whether surface happy or inner happy, it’s all a blessing. I chose to share some of my surface happy. I don’t know if I could put into photo or words my inner happy. It is good to rehearse both. This challenge was fun and one we should all practice often: happy.

Happy, Happy 🙂

Blessings, Kulia…

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Whether you’re a beginner or a professional, you’re invited to get involved in our Weekly Photo Challenge to help you meet your blogging goals and give you another way to take part in Post a Day / Post a Week. Everyone is welcome to participate, even if your blog isn’t about photography.

Here’s how it works:

1. Each week, we’ll provide a theme for creative inspiration. You take photographs based on your interpretation of the theme, and post them on your blog (a new post!) anytime before the following Friday when the next photo theme will be announced.

2. To make it easy for others to check out your photos, title your blog post “Weekly Photo Challenge: (theme of the week)” and be sure to use the “postaday″ tag.

3. Subscribe to The Daily Post so that you don’t miss out on weekly challenge announcements. Sign up via the email subscription link in the sidebar or RSS.

All in a Row…

 

 
Yes, that’s how I like it…all in a row. Everything nice, neat and in order. I like it that way, but often times things in my life aren’t so cooperative. I like having the details planned out and all things accounted for. Planning for what is expected to happen and troubleshooting what may go wrong. Knowing A to Z. No Surprises or mishaps. Order. Control.

No, that’s not reality. Nothing has a perfect plan. No matter how much we try, nothing is entirely without flaw or element of the unexpected or the unintended.

Anyway, it would not do us any good in the long run. If everything was fail proof we wouldn’t grow, develop, discover, uncover. We wouldn’t expand or create. We wouldn’t know what is inside of us. Sometimes it is the unexpected, the unrehearsed, the thing that you would have never thought of happening, popping or showing up that gives us the most “stretch” and experience.

Yes, I have to remind myself. I can’t have complete order of everything. I need to plan for what I can and then just go with the flow for the rest.

Order is good, but it can be boring depending on what it relates to. Diversity and change can be a welcomed element at the end of a thing if not sometimes at the beginning.

I can think of countless times of things not happening the way I set out for them to and in the end it worked out for the better. From the simplest act of missing a turn while driving only to find there was an accident on the route I would have gone. If I hadn’t misplaced my keys and left later than usual I would have been stuck in traffic. Another instance was if things worked out where I moved to the states last year, I would have missed an opportunity to travel to the Philippines on a short term medical mission trip earlier this year. It was a matter of being in the right place for opportunity at the right time. Well, now I’m back in the states where I started out a year ago. This time with many wonderful experiences behind me.

So no, life doesn’t have everything laid out neatly all in a row. But do we really want it that way?

What interruptions in your life (big or small) have taken place only to find later that it was actually a blessing in disguise?

As I look and live ahead I must keep in mind that “all things work together for good…” Romans 8:28