A Short Guide to a Happy Life

I took an hour yesterday to stop bitching and did what my friend the singer/songwriter Steve Forbert advises: "Get out in the daylight and go for a walk.''

We took the dog to Kelley Nature Preserve in Miamiville, on the East Side. The place was closed to cars, its gate swung across the entrance. We parked by the gate and walked in. I've never seen anything like it.

The ice hung like young love from the branches of every bush and tree. When the sun escaped the clouds, the whole preserve lit up like a display case at Tiffany. Untrampled snow crunched underfoot. The quiet was deafening. I heard a hawk's wings beat over the partly frozen Little Miami River.

The poet Gwendolyn Brooks advises this:
"Exhaust the little moment. Soon it dies.
And be it gash or gold, it will not come again;
In this identical disguise.''

I could either moan about the weather, or embrace it. Moaning is a waste of time. Better to marvel at the sun's effect on the ice in the trees. The dog was deliriously happy. Another reason to pay attention to dogs.

Live big.