Happy New Year

I originally wrote this piece as a part of my “Book of Bob”. It was written on New Year’s Eve 2009. I reread it today and decided to share my year old thoughts with you.
Sandra was spending New Years with friends and the cat and I were staying home. With only the cat to talk to I had time to do some reflecting. These were some of my thoughts:
It took me many years to realize that I did not need to waste a lot of my life reading fictional day dreams of others. It appeared to me; many of these books were written by unfulfilled people and read by others who were unhappy with some part of their life. They were either trying to break away from a life they felt was routine or boring, or they were trying to find happiness in reading books written by other unfulfilled persons trying to dream happiness.
Happiness is not found in the fictional dreams of others. Happiness comes from the dreams in our heart and making those dreams happen. Happiness comes from the POSITIVE side of your heart.
I came to this realization that night as I sat with the TV tuner in my hand. I have over 70 channels on my set and I clicked through each and every one twice. I could find nothing that I felt was worth my time watching. Believe it or not I turned the darn thing off.
I sat for several minutes with that dark eye looking back at me. All around the TV was shelves of books that, at that time, I had no desire to read.
I don’t know about you but my body does not work well with extra time and nothing constructive to use it for. So I picked up a pad and pen and started to write.
This is what I wrote: I’m happy. How did I get that way? When and where did it start?
I guess it all started many years ago with my best friend, a little girl named Joie. We were six or seven and she lived across the street from my house. I’m sure she was the one who opened the happiness side of my heart. I could write an entire book on the little things I remember about her. I’ll share one of them with you as I glance at the dark screen then close my eyes for a second so I can pull those distant memories into focus.
On hot summer nights we would spread a blanket in her backyard. We would lie on our backs with a shoulder touching, she always had to touch. We would lay there watching for shooting stars. As we would see one, we would take turns making a wish. I don’t remember any of these wishes being personal, this was during the Great Depression and you did not have to look far to find a hurting person to have a wish for. Some nights we would lay there for hours
We laid there in total happiness. Yes I’m sure she unlocked the happiness side of my heart. Over seventy years later I can close my eyes and smell the fresh cut grass around us and still feel that touch of her tiny shoulder against mine.
I just looked at my watch; the time is 12:45, the first morning of the New Year. Time moves much faster when it isn’t interrupted by commercials!
Thank you Joie, this New Years Eve I have learned a great lesson: memories of a tiny touch of love can open a person’s heart. There are many of these memories bottled up in each of our hearts. All we have to do is push the off button, lean back a close our eyes and bring them back. Best of all they are our memories, not the fictional dreams of others.
I Wish You a Happy New Year and good night.