Quotes from Gretchen Rubin's Happiness Project

If I had thought of creating a Misery Project, and consciously worked to make myself miserable, I would be a trememndous success.

When one quotes from a law school graduate's book, one must be conscientious about attribution, and copyright. So please note that these quotes are from The Happiness Project, copyrighted 2009 by Gretchen Rubin, published by HarperCollins. The questions start on page 295 of the hardcover edition.

Answer the following questions:
What makes you feel good? What activities do you find fun, satisfying  or energizing?
What makes you feel bad? (Blogger's addition: are you addicted to what makes you feel bad?) What are sources of anger, irritation, boredom, frustration, or anxiety in your life?
Is there any way in which you don't feel right about your life? Do you wish you could change your job, city, family situation or other circumstances?
Do you have sources of an atmosphere of growth? In what elements of your life do you (blogger note: or did you, if you are truly miserable) find progress, learning, challenge, improvement, and increased mastery?

Sheldon Kopp: All God's Children Are Lost, But Only a Few Can Play the Piano

Kopp, Sheldon. All God's Children are Lost, but Only a Few Can Play the Piano. New York, NY: Prentice Hall, 1991.
1. No matter how well our lives are going, there will be times when we ask ourselves, "Is that all there is?"
2. When  you think the meaning of life has been lost, what you need to find is yourself.
3. Everyone feels lost and alone at times.
4. The fulfillment we need lies buried deep inside us.
5.  Where are you in your life?
6. Why aren't you more like yourself?
7. If we endure the holy insecurities, we can find the higher power within us
8. No one else can find your higher power for you.
9. When you follow your heart, you will find your way hoome to your true self and the people you love
10. The traveling and the sense of arrival are inseparable
11. To live your own life, you have to create your own story.
12. If you withdraw from others for a while, you can discover who you are that they aren't.
13. Making an inner journey is a risky business--it can transform your life.
14. The solitary path to the depth of our souls leads us to the edge of oru aloneness and back to a place among others that is truly our own.
15. Every soul has its own shadow side.
16. In the dark night of our souls, we can begin to see the sparks from the higher power within.
17. Trying to will ourselves to be different won't work.
18. The only victory lies in surrender to oneself.
19. All of you is worth something, if you will only own it.
20. Accepting our weaknesses frees our strengths.
21. We all experience predicaments that make us feel upset and unprepared.
22. Every crisis presents a crossroads, and paths open up we may never have seen otherwise.
23. Whether or not life is fair is irrelevant.
24. Asking "why me?" is useless. The only question that counts is, "Where do I go from here?"
25. What if God doesn't want us to be caged in our lusts, but to be free in them?
26. Then whatever goes on in our imaginations is nobody else's business.
27. We want so much to seem normal and nice, we're tempted to hide the very things that make us singular.
28. The false images we create to conceal our real selves from others may fool ourselves as well.
29. Until we realize that the monster of others' expectations is jst a paper tiger, we remain threatened by their concepts of who we ought to be.
30. When we honour our peculiarities, we can make the most of all the unique things we are.
31. We must know what we feel, say what we mean, and do what we say.
32. Why would God make us all so different and then allow only one way to serve Him?
33. When we act in accord with both our heads and our hearts, everything we do becomes a form of prayer.
34. Whatever we are undertaking at the moment is the most important thing we can do.
35. True hope is possible only after we experience true despair, facing all the little deaths in life and the great death that awaits us thereafter.
36. Feeling fully alive doesn't depend on what we believe in, but on how we experience each great and small moment in our lives.
37. God dwells wherever people let Hiim in.
38. We can let Him in only where we really stand, where we live a life that is truly our own.

What to Read in 2012

Memoir from Antproof Case - Mark Helprin
Out Stealing Horses - Per Petterson
Atonement - Ian McEwan
The Good Soldier - Ford Madox Ford
White Teeth - Zadie Smith
The Color Purple - Alice Walker
Crossing to Safety - Wallace Stegner
Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera
Ficciones - Jorge Luis Borges
The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood
The Robber Bride - Margaret Atwood
Art of Racing in the Rain - Garth Stein
East of Eden - John Steinbeck
Professor and the Madman - Simon Winchester
Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder - Lawrence Weschler
Special Topics in Calamity Physics - Marisha Pessl
Cat's Eye - Margaret Atwood
Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri
The Long Loneliness - Dorothy Day
Dick Davis Dividend - Dick Davis
Confessions - St. Augustine
Story of Philosophy - Will Durant
1Q84 - Haruki Murakami

It is embarrassing that I have not read these. At my age.

links for a happy new year

http://yogaeatrun.com/home/2011/12/30/grocery-shopping-101.html jenae frick shows you how to reduce time and cost at yonder supermarket

http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/26/a-plan-for-2012-that-youll-actually-follow/ Carl Richards shows you a Plan for 2012 you will actually follow

http://lifehacker.com/5872627/the-best-time-to-buy-anything-in-2012 The best time to buy anything in 2012

http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/are-you-ready-for-a-really-good-year/ Willie Jolley asks if you're ready for a really good year.

http://bestculinaryrecipes.com/news/a-recipe-for-simplifying-life-ditch-all-the-recipes.htm Wow, this is brave. Ditch all the Recipes to Simplify life.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/health/2016829657_hoarderpersonalhealth22.html Robin Zasio says it's time to say goodbye to all that.


 http://www.wisebread.com/25-small-new-year-s-resolutions-you-can-start-today 25 Small New Year’s Resolutions You Can Start Today, Mikey Rox for wisebread.com