october 1-17: happiness is...

10/1 … ordering artists books

10/2 … family gathering and all of carter’s grandparents there to see him play soccer

10/3 … an afternoon with my family

10/4 … traveling to school with my boys

10/5 … carter thinking of others and inspiring others to pick up trash

10/6 … an all day seminar that actually turned out to be great

10/7 … finalizing lots of loose ends for a conference

10/8 … a successful presentation and conference

10/9 … delicious breakfast and more good presentations

10/10 … a lazy afternoon

10/11 … spending the day with ann

10/12 … my birthday!

10/13 … my fun choir

10/14 … a beautiful day, an excuse to get out of the office, and sharing rare books with a class

10/15 … a surprise taking the rest of the day off, the end of a week and returning home to my lovely wife and two wonderful boys

10/16 … crisp morning, soccer game, looking at rocks

10/17 … two beautiful english choral settings

10/18 … my boys laughing in the car on the way to school and a note to my sweetie letting her know i’m thinking about her

See more progress on: find at least one thing each day that makes me happy and record it everyday for a year

10/13/10

reading choosing civility and
the music instinct

See more progress on: read some each day

9/20/10-9/30/10 - happiness is...

9/20…my beautiful wife and funny boys

9/21…an engaging colleague and his infectious enthusiasm, playing with carter and max and having dinner all together. ann and i got to go for a walk which was really nice. ran a mile on the treadmill and did weights.

9/22…a cancelled meeting, getting a lot done at work, a good choir rehearsal

9/23…highlight of my day was to come home and be with the boys and with ann. they completely brighten my life. we played in the backyard some until time for bed. after reading to max and putting him to bed, ann and I went for a walk. it was good to be out together as nightfall came, listening to crickets chirp and talking about our days.

9/24…a thought-provoking teleconference, and “friday”!

9/25… a completely lazy and schedule free saturday

9/26… carter went to a friend’s house and max took a nap, so ann and I had some great time to ourselves! among other things, enjoyed working on some art projects with ann, while sharing some coffee. we played outside, went to a playground for a little bit in the afternoon. the first glimpse of fall arrived with cooler weather. we ate dinner on the patio.

9/27… cooler weather and a really productive day

9/28… lunch with carter and an evening walk with ann

9/29… long day, but a good conversation with jay and then with ann after i got home

9/30… thai food, good conversation, soccer game, and some good books

See more progress on: find at least one thing each day that makes me happy and record it everyday for a year

Inspiration

my very most favorite part of the day was thanks to my seven year old, Carter. he’s in second grade and yesterday he told me that during recess, he decided to pick up trash at school and a girl in his class asked him if she could help. I told him I was really proud of him choosing on his own to be so helpful and even more so that his actions inspired other people to get on board. he talked about how too many people don’t take care of the earth and how in picking up trash, he’s helping the planet. today, they enlisted the help of others on this mission during recess and seemed enthusiastic at the results. he was excited too that they found a bag (litter) they could use to hold the trash they were picking up (instead of running to the trashcan each time) and how great it was in the end that when the bag filled up, they could dump it or when recess was over, they could just throw away the whole bag. when we got home from school, carter asked if after dinner and as a family, we could walk around our neighborhood picking up trash. I love how he got the whole family on board doing a good thing. he even got our two year old, Max, excited about helping. I’m truly inspired by his spirit of helping and community and the way he got so many other people excited about joining his effort. I know I’m a little biased, but I think he’s one fantastic kid.