Happier At Home

   When "The Happiness Project" hit the bestseller lists I turned my nose to another self help book which sounded like a bootstrapping endeavor. Bootstrapping comes from the days of horse and buggy, where if you were to go riding you had to firmly grab your boots on each side and force them on. I don't like bootstrapping my way to change.

   So I ignored Gretchen Rubin's first book. Then she published "Happier At Home", which appealed to my foundational belief that all good things happen within the walls of your home. Or, they should, and I realize that often bad things happen there, as well. I work from home and spend 80% of my time within the walls of my hovel. The definition of hovel I refer to is small, my home is not unpleasant or squalid. I was intrigued with the question, "Was I happy at home?" I thought about the things which made me irritated; messy kitchen, dirty bathroom, overgrown yard, and being tired are a few. I listed things which made me happy at home. Fresh flowers, baking bread, good music, a stack of books, computers at hand, made it top on the list.

    Gretchen made me evaluate many others aspects of happiness at home. I took to heart some of the ideas she posed in regard to relationships with the people I live with. Warm greetings made it to the top of my list. I have seen the difference in my husband when I greet him warmly every morning and especially when he comes home from work.
  "To be happier, I have to notice what I’m doing, and why, and how it makes me feel."
    That may sound to some people like an over thinker but I am an over thinker. I like to mentally work through things and look for solutions to my unhappiness. For that reason alone this book was appealing. 

  "To be more at home at home, I had to know myself, and face myself. This was the way to true simplicity: to be myself, free from affectation, posturing, or defensiveness."

   After finishing the last page I felt satisfied that indeed I had some new ideas to be happier at home and I felt validated that my home is truly where I want to be most of the time.

  As Laura Ingalls wrote in the Little House series, "She thought to herself, “This is now.” She was glad that the cozy house, and Pa and Ma and the firelight and the music, were now. They could not be forgotten, she thought, because now is now. It can never be a long time ago."