this week’s happiness is all about the unexpected, good, free things I’ve noticed this week:

1. free au lait

When you don’t realize that free refills are included, and though you ask for a bit of warm milk too, the sometimes-snooty barista cheerfully hands it over, gratis.  Double free treat–kindness & coffee!

2. free bananas & paper towels

Oh this one is a good story (and the moment it happened, I knew it’d be on the list this week): Last Thursday was a long, long, rough day.  I’d been running ragged since Saturday, and my dear home was without both bananas and paper towels (which, to me, means it’s not a “home” anymore, but just a crash pad).  Stopping for a happy-hour margarita with my dear friend, Ryan Evangelical (name adjusted to describe more accurately this sweet man), I decided out loud that a dose of tequila & a proper catch up was much more important than frenetic-search-for-paper-towels-before-9-pm-that-night.  And so, what was waiting on my doorstep when I arrived home from my last meeting, about 8:45pm?  Yes, bananas & paper towels and a note proclaiming, “Grace!”

That, readers, is true community.  That is what the 1 John lection from last week’s Sunday lessons described: “How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?  Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.” (1 John 3:17-18)

3. free highs

I’m doing all sorts of strange, strange things when I have a hot yoga session early, early in the morning.  I reach out to people I haven’t talked to in years; I fearlessly try totally new things; I notice my environments throughout the day and my body’s reaction to them.  This new fearlessness, lowered-reactivity, openness-to-newness, and heightened awareness births great compassion & creativity.  It’s the same sort of high I used to get from running–that unsinkable feeling of crushing it (and though I don’t run anymore, I’m so grateful to have found this high again!).