999 + 1 Things to be happy about
15 min readMay 28, 2021

- The pure joy of the Sun
- Easeful days, dreamless night
- Memories of the good things you ate in your childhood
- Moonlight dances
- All the greens of spring
- Books of answers
- Commuter drinking cups
- Recovering a fumble
- Your favourite airport
- The smell of northern air
- What makes human beings uniquely human
- Loving touches
- A newly refinished gym floor
- The art in everyday life
- Buying summer sandals
- A fresh idea in a mind
- Cake
- Bright shining stars
- The buzz of a bee
- Writing down three things you are grateful for
- Papaya with lemon cream
- Aerial views
- Incurable enthusiasm
- Shop talk
- Olympic trampolining
- When all systems are “go”
- When the lights come up
- English-style breakfast and dinners in a riverside dining room
- Things you don’t have to work at to enjoy
- New York City
- Feeling the damp freshness of a Cape Cod morning cool on your face
- Fortune-cookie messages
- Pool parties
- Getting a job
- An animal doing the tuck and roll
- Prizes you have won
- Basketball
- Hearing: “You are the best!”
- Organising time
- Personally witnessing a happy event in history
- Sailing on Lake Michigan
- An ideal Picnic spot
- Palm Springs, California
- Postcards
- Having a person to miss
- Catching a fish
- Watering your plants
- A leader’s words that stir a nation
- A window’s walk
- Introverts Anonymous
- A sauce bowl and ladle
- 8760 hours in a year
- The little things in life that really make your day go right
- Driving under an overpass during a storm
- Pink grapefruit
- The sound of a key in the lock
- Life choices
- Getting warm on a fire
- Rare books
- A successful first attempt
- Seeing a rainbow
- Not worrying about having what everyone else has
- Your first time in a foreign country
- Returning books to the library
- An unexpected message from someone
- Carrying groceries in a backpack
- The act of entering a room and forgetting why
- Thanksgiving
- Turning of your email
- Wild roses
- absorbing nature blessing
- Filling a bowl with fresh fruits
- Learning a new sport
- Starbucks caramel macchiato
- Refresher courses
- The structure of things
- Rising early
- Sponge baths
- Hostess gifts
- Sport shorts
- Clouds rolling over a mountain
- Sport shorts
- Headache medicine
- Downloading music
- A fresh croissants from the bakery
- Going back to memorable places
- Rereading passages for inspiration
- Getting the last soda in a vending machine
- Music box
- Late Sunday breakfast
- Reliability
- Laundry soap
- The feeling when something you desire is in your price range
- Organically grown foods
- Two seats besides each other in a crowded movie
- Doing a headstand
- The beach in the fall
- Potato salad
- Porsche 911s
- Cups with built-in straws
- Sound of a closing purse
- Library tables
- Symmetry of roof tiles
- A room for creating art
- Reading the New York Times
- Writing in your journal
- Achieving a state of flow
- Filling the food bowl of your pet
- Scholarships
- Not having the fear of missing out
- Autographs
- Church bazaars
- Knowledge
- The Dalai Lama’s smile
- National Football League
- The inner city
- Introductory courses
- The law of attraction
- Your coffee routine
- Having windows washed
- Buying flowers
- An organised kitchen
- Morning orange juice
- Sweater dryers
- Berlin
- Group studying
- Bay swimming
- French cuffs
- Reading a magazine
- A boy’s first facial hairs
- Waxing floors
- Going barefoot around the house
- Something to be enthusiastic about
- The magic curl waves
- Anyone who can do a cartwheel
- Going for a walk before breakfast
- Spine-tingling views
- Snow in December
- Hedge mazes
- Your grey hairs
- Reserving your own quiet corner
- Speedy Gonzales
- Sweet smells
- Paris
- Jewellery design
- Payday
- Ultramarine blue
- Owning a jersey of your favourite team
- A standing clipboard
- Tall people
- Old-fashioned lemon pie
- Writing a blog
- Call and response of two birds
- Listening to an auctioneer
- Pulling the curtains in the morning
- Resting under a tree
- Compliments to the chef
- Courses and certificates
- Having a passion in life
- Shape of you by Ed Sheeran
- Walking a mile
- Singing to the radio
- Colourful paintings
- Escaping from civilisation
- Making a list of life goals
- Behind-the.scenes editors
- Forming a mind map
- Making a birthday special
- Sleep-away camp
- Archaeology buffs
- Selling lemonade on the sidewalk
- The one song you can play on the guitar
- When all your senses are engaged
- Friendliness
- Mashed potato meals
- The calm before the storm
- Buying a used textbook
- When your hair stays where you want it
- Big changes
- That vacation feeling
- Little bit of kitchen knowledge
- Doing well on the SATs
- Writing a letter to the editor
- Open lines of communication
- The quiet spirit of holiday music
- Luggage which stands out at the airport
- Kitesurfing
- Sitting down in a beanbag chair
- A party on the terrace of a penthouse
- Making love after a fight
- How lucky you are
- London
- Squeezing out one more brushful out of the toothpaste tube
- Bermuda onions
- Football terms
- Fortune cookies
- Elevator music
- Reading glasses
- Little cracks of fire
- Always looking people in the eye
- Your lunch hour
- Long winter weekends
- Decorating a flowerpot
- Bluffing at poker
- Riding through the desert in a dune buggy
- Familiar surroundings
- Jalapeños
- A street map of your hometown
- Finding the last item in your size at the store
- A baby smiling in its sleep
- Snow swirls
- Dishwashers
- Craving pumpkins for Halloween
- Giving a speech
- Beethoven symphonies
- Correcting the autocorrect
- Disasters you have survived
- National Basketball League
- Dutch butter cookies
- Fluffy puppies
- The silence of isolated beaches
- Sticking with something you committed to
- Wall Street
- Good news for a change
- Sandbox toys
- English muffins
- Celebrating the imperfection of your relationship
- A whale swimming
- Cafe society
- Dimpling rains
- The freshest of ingredients
- Exploring a shipwreck
- Driver’s education class
- Being tall enough to reach
- Old medical texts
- Baby food
- Lemon pound cake
- Cows with bells
- A chemistry set to experiment with
- A white Christmas
- Vietnamese cuisine
- Having a picnic on the living room floor
- Chasing fireflies
- The spacious interior of a car
- Bacon frying
- Traveling in the off-season
- Watching a plant grow
- Ice-cream
- Looking your best
- Spending an afternoon skating
- A coffeepot filled with dried flowers
- Old fashioned cocktail
- Being faithful
- A celebration breakfast
- A hypothesis
- Yin and Yang
- Breaking out of a bad habit
- Dill mustard
- Winning a video game
- 15 minutes all to yourself
- Hey Brother by Avicii
- Soap bubbles
- City planning
- Tanning salons
- Supermarkets
- Soft-lightening effects
- A vintage farmer’s milk strainer
- Wind-up animals
- Photography
- A paw in the fish bowl
- Toll House cookie batter
- Crazy kids
- Warming milk for cocoa
- Laser printers
- Conviviality
- High school rock bands
- The smell of fresh-cut greens
- Beating the heat
- Holiday soaps
- The practice of eating the cream center of an Oreo
- 50 % off anything
- Wheat fields
- Chocolate covered cherries
- Day headlights on cars
- Shop doorways
- Sugar wafers
- When the February sky is gun-barrel grey
- Sleeping on the porch in summer
- Ritz crackers
- Any fruit
- Being an upperclassman
- Making love
- Tennis
- Planting seeds
- Driving up and down the main street
- Mirrors inside a closet
- Iconic columns
- The visual language of comics and cartoons
- The refrigerator egg holder
- Something that is one of a kind
- Christmas trees
- Movable feasts
- Porky Pig
- Getting asked out on a date
- Political discussions
- Kicking off your shoes and putting your feet in a pool
- The prow of a ship
- French bread
- A collection of hot sauces
- A romantic walk
- Someone who wants to take you dancing
- Fruit peddlers
- 15
- 30
- 40
- Game
- Set
- Match
- enlarging a favourite photo
- Cookbooks
- Earth’s concentric layers
- Free concerts in the park
- Lincoln wheat-cent coins
- Old black and white snapshots
- Licking a cake bowl
- Discovering a different route to work
- Every seventh wave being a big one
- Do not disturb signs
- Spring training
- Ringing the bell for your dog’s dinner
- Spam and ad blockers
- Staples in the stapler
- Fresh fruit pancakes
- Ticket windows
- Unpretentiousness
- A sky in the shade of faded blue jeans
- Blobbing for apples
- Knowing it’s never too late to learn
- Barrel-jumping
- Your smile
- Popcorn at the movies
- Coloured fireplace logs
- Lighthouses
- Baskets of shells on a low table
- Riding in a caboose
- An analytic approach
- Haunted houses
- Fired mozzarella and marinara sauce
- Sandwiches for lunch
- Clouds with silver linings
- Flat griddles
- Secondhand stores
- Making a TV commercial
- Museum lecture
- Wilson Sporting Goods
- Adam and Eve
- Submitting a sealed bid
- Itching after playing in the snow
- A wish box
- Desert picked off trees
- Jumping into bed
- Visiting university
- Bermuda’s pink beaches
- Oxford English Dictionary
- Days in a year
- Juicy Barbecued delights
- Sidewalk hitching rings for horses
- Blueberries
- Anything you can get closure on
- People who have a will
- Changing a college major
- Slow snowfalls
- Website redesign
- Playing possum
- Getting fresh fish from someone who caught it
- Skating
- Using your powers for good
- Digging a hole
- Sunday school
- Finding a pretty spot to sit
- Love between two people
- Salsa
- Classic Spritz cookies
- Being taken to the Zoo
- Gaming tables
- Scented oils
- Happy songbirds
- Winding a maypole
- Freshly laundered jeans
- Old maps of a museum gift shop
- Open-air flower markets
- Secret civilisations
- Chipping in for a birdie
- Spoon bread
- Scoring the high score
- Swiss chocolate
- A sense of humor
- A shore dinner
- Fuelling a hot-air ballon
- Cleaning soft-shell crabs
- Snow forts
- Wearing a smartwatch
- Little boys with frogs
- Viagra
- Page not found
- Banning all weapons
- Lasagna
- Fast and Furious
- Photojournalists
- Classical music concerts
- The first day of winter
- Things that smell wonderful
- Old suitcase
- The morning quiet
- Accepting a compliment
- Arthurian mythology
- Rented Tuxedos
- Your favourite ice-cream
- Sharpie pens
- Old wavy glass panes
- April 20th
- G.I. Joe action figures
- Tranquility
- Chefs’ outfits
- 21st-century explorers
- Backpack-style handbags
- The riverboat era
- A mother calling to her child
- The pleasure of discovery
- Walks along long piers
- Barn houses
- Frosted Flakes cereal
- Turkey trots
- Wooden ice-cream sticks
- A shopping spree
- Minimalism
- A towel warmer in the bathroom
- Brookstone gadgets
- Tropical fruits
- Honey
- Satin vests
- Victorian furniture
- Assisting a caterer
- Reading menus
- Rainy days
- Making concrete
- Corssword puzzeles
- Saturday night dances
- A clever phrase
- Singing songs around a campfire
- Door handles
- Serving sliced vegetables
- The bear of a drum
- A classic picnic
- Knowing one great idea which can revolutionise your life
- Being mistaken for a celebrity
- Astrology
- Sweet potatoes
- Sour-cream jam
- Wonderful smelling dryer sheets
- A big brother reading to a little brother
- Maple sirup
- Sales
- Feeling loved on Valentine’s Day
- Brand-new pencils
- Birthstones
- Cold feet under a blanket
- Christmas music
- Adjustable hairbands
- Dots candy
- Sparkling water
- Something as pretty as a picture
- Broadening someone’s horizon
- Hand-tied fishing flies
- Treating yourself to a massage
- Mosquito zappers
- A giant cookie
- Dish towels hung on a cup hooks
- Deep-set windowsills
- A romantic scavenger hunt
- Overcoming sacredness
- Fishing licenses
- Sliding glass doors
- Portable drafting tables
- Having good luck on a Friday the 13th
- Happy endings
- Craving chicken
- Analysing a blueprint
- Falling in love with an old friend
- The greyness of a sky about to snow
- The art of cheesemaking
- Efficient couriers
- Running a country store
- @
- Class reunions
- Worn plush movie seats
- A spa vacation
- When your name is pronounced correctly
- Sprays of true-blue water
- Moist
- Starting a collection
- Transonic airlines
- Polaroid
- May the force be with you
- Talking sweetly
- Gumball banks
- Smashing a piñata
- Baseball
- Clip art
- Double boilers
- Remembering which side the fas cap is on
- Open-minded uncertainty
- Theatergoing
- Touching the sky
- Making dreams come true
- Excellence in your chosen occupation
- Making friends with the police
- Saying “yes”
- The concept of one size its all
- Furniture woods
- Meat platters
- Cloud nine
- Overcoming writer’s block
- Working out a problem
- Easter dinner
- Handling the first few minutes when meeting someone new
- Contentment in listening to music
- The world of words
- Animal intelligence
- A Bad Day Survival Kit
- Old-fashioned glasses
- Winning an eBay auction
- Coming out of the water to dry
- Writing about whatever you think of
- Four-slice toasters
- French fry frying baskets
- Wanderlust
- Printing out photographs
- Mobile concepts
- A gentle ringtone
- The Energiser bunny
- Beating the odds for a change
- Tool kits
- taking a snowmobile tour
- Steel bands
- Gloves
- Kayaks for rent
- Dreaming nice dreams
- A grandfather clause
- Soft music
- Refreshing your eyeballs
- Baby showers
- Oval picture frames
- A blanket rack
- A single orchid fed by ice cubes
- Being nice to someone who bugs you
- Benches in between rows of lockers
- Trying a friendship bracelet
- Banana splits
- Pop tents
- Learning things from books
- Colourful flowers
- Philadelphia cheesesteak
- The dizzy smell of fresh-cut hay
- Benefiting from a change in your point of view
- Writing inspirational quotes
- Playing pool
- When your teacher uses your work as a good example
- Chopping blocks
- Babies in backpacks
- A communal meal
- Everyone needing a little love
- Saying something that no one else would dare to say
- Your oldest Christmas decorations
- A drive-up mailbox
- Earning Brownie points
- Towel racks
- Sharpening your vision
- A handsome park
- free kittens
- A tea cozy
- Wine tastings
- Long sojourns
- Golden lion tamarins
- Taking a course
- Speaking multiple languages
- Feeding a cow
- Beautiful children
- A thermos lunch
- Campfires
- Dips
- Baked pineapple
- Your favourite take out food
- Minecraft
- Trying shoelaces
- Rising pantyhose in almond soap
- Secret recipes
- Poetry
- Ceramic glaze
- American Express cards
- Working on a project
- Slabs of homemade fudge
- When you finally remember the word you had on the tip of your tongue
- Doughnuts
- The Simpsons
- Netflix
- Discipline in exercise
- Investigating underwater
- Singing in the shower
- Thick woollen blankets
- Sun-dried tomatoes
- Not missing a thing
- The turbulent surface of the sun
- Falling leaves
- Eternity rings
- Handing out invitations
- Arabian horses
- Coffe beans
- A teacher who learns from students
- Playing blackjack
- Giving a soft answer to a not-so-soft question
- Using your time to cultivate gardens
- Shells in a shadow box
- A luxurious hotel bathroom with a Jacuzzi
- Evaporating handwashing liquid
- Saved money
- Snow on the weekend
- Chameleons seeing in two different directions
- Shin pads
- Boathouses
- Class acts
- The last day of school
- The spot on the shopping mall map marked “You are here”
- A boost when you most need it
- Effective business meetings
- English library ladder chairs
- Cheese fondue
- The dynamic of a black hole
- Heated swimming pools
- Shy goldfish
- Caribbean bartenders
- The poetics of lists
- Write-in-the-dark pens
- Your summer job
- A farmhouse
- Time to think things over
- A warm mic of vegetables Bargain prices
- Online reference
- Barbecuing meat
- Having someone to come home to
- Highly polished parquet floors
- Plump white berries on mistletoe
- Church bells pealing
- Cool alpine breeze
- Sports video games
- Being to busy to notice trivialities
- A yacht club
- An odd couple
- A vending machine accepting your dollar
- Clothesline rope
- A blue ribbon won at a playground pet show
- Orange segments
- Tabletop mirrors
- White enamel coffee mugs
- Designated bike lanes
- Fabric rosebuds
- Pasta makers
- Summer research projects
- What your desk thinks about at night
- A G-force simulator
- Recording trivia and fact bites that interest you
- Painting the ceiling sky blue
- The student union
- The local Zen centre
- Many candles on a table
- Great human happiness
- Biking around campus
- A broom-swept beach house
- A river trip on a sternwheeler
- Bachelor’s buttons
- An early hunting owl winging close
- Cream satin furniture
- Ripe plums
- Curtain calls
- An espresso
- The whirr of bumming-bird wings
- Water pumps
- Putting the cover over the birdcage at night
- Using a telephoto lens
- Attic junk
- Tearing out a piece of paper perfectly
- Paintings sold straight from the easel
- Lying down on the grass and following a cloud across the horizon
- Reversible place mats
- The school nurse
- Lobster salad on slit wiener buns
- Enthusiastic book reviews
- Getting lots of sleep
- Eau de cologne
- Secret doors
- Babies wearing jeans
- Learning a new word
- Drawing tables
- Shaggy Dartmoor ponies
- Giving back
- Laughing to keep from crying
- Blue lights-bulbs
- Saying “Sure”
- Plants and shells as centerpieces
- Cheddar cheese
- The peal of an organ
- A steaming pot over a crackling fire
- Happy times
- Short socks
- A whiff of peppermint
- Showing a dog
- Blueberry pancakes
- Blues
- A baby’s quilt
- rope railings
- Large scrapbooks
- Personalised golf balls
- Hot chocolate and big marshmallows after being outside in the cold
- Seeing hot-air balloons in the sky
- Woven Baskets
- All-night jam sessions
- Small packages wrapped with foil papers
- Sailing picnics
- Old town road
- Art classes
- Celebrating togetherness
- Apple tarts
- The cold coming and knitting a film of ice
- Bangs that finally grow out
- Coffee shops
- The tradition of wedding spoons
- Being an archaeologist in your own backyard
- Sunset
- Barrettes
- Dancing with a lover to 1950a music
- Handcuff-size onion rings
- A rasher of bacon done to a turn
- Inserting tabs
- The exploration of Africa
- A barn home
- Riding the wind
- The lure of the uncertain
- Playing kick-the.can
- Caramelising onions
- Marriage certificates
- Outdoor chaises
- Bird safaris
- A small fragrant disk of sausage
- Walking a sandbar
- Fabric patterns
- Pilots in uniform
- Purse Atomizers
- Gumbos and jambalayas
- Low-bush blueberries
- Bibb lettuce
- Greeting cards that say something
- The energy to squeeze some juice
- Little things
- Blankets
- Long walks across the frozen lake to the post office
- White china drawer pulls
- Your favourite kind of clothes
- Indirect lighting
- Tim Hortons
- Watching it snow
- Bathing-suit season
- Note-taking in college
- Words pertaining to the nose
- Living in a 200-year-old house
- Pitching tents
- Red Ferraris
- Chopping veggies
- Daring to write on the lines as well as in between them
- Ethnic grocery shops
- Accidental meetings
- Mozart piano concerts
- Forest walking
- Exclaiming
- Central American bananas
- A 4-foot Christmas tree
- Dolman sleeves
- Sofa beds
- Selling subscriptions
- How maps are made from satellite photos
- Small snowmen with twings for arms
- Sand
- Salmon color
- Cozy robes
- Morning newspaper
- 24 hours a day
- Cashing in your chips
- The silence of close friendship
- Child-drawn maps of imaginative worlds
- A 20-hour workweek
- Starting an herb garden
- Carrots growing deep
- Staring off into space
- Getting tickets to a play
- Open-late shops
- A restored nickelodeon
- old-fashioned bridal gowns
- Catching a butterfly in the palm of your hand and letting it go
- Secret drawers
- Being a guest of honour
- Whipping up a casserole
- An office with a window
- Your favourite facial expression
- Resident mail
- Being the sorority social chair
- Art journals
- Visiting Alaska
- Red leotards
- Motorcycling
- Trampolines
- White T-shirts
- Using a big word
- Studying at the library
- Used train ticket
- Receding chins
- Blouses with Peter Pan collars
- Taking five
- Mechanical pencils
- Drowsy mornings
- Sherpas and muses
- Having your car warmed up by a loving soul before you go out
- January sunrise
- A wind farm
- Rainy weekends for lots of reading
- Brochures from hotels
- Microwaves
- Growing food
- A down-to-earth attitude
- Tying a dozen helium-filled balloons to a friend’s car
- Watching a thunderstorm
- Umbrella shade tables
- Finding your way through an office park
- Hand-blown posy vases
- Fireflies flashing their taillights
- An enthusiastic kiss
- Good morning’s
- Riding bikes along a seawall promenade
- A smile you wear all over
- The steadfast sun
- Physics
- Kicking your baggage to the airport counter
- Seeing your favourite teen movie again
- Star wars
- International Morse Code
- Dogs wearing college mufflers
- Bitcoin
- Recovering from culture shock
- Watching the sun rise and set aboard ship
- Arena football
- The secret urge to expedite the person ahead of you through a door
- Multigrain foods
- Sleepy times
- Beer
- Flower-decked balconies
- Giving yourself a mind massage
- Bright rubies
- A short but sweet summer
- The cool underside of a pillow
- Being centred
- Continental breakfasts
- A wall of books
- Stopping to rest under the drooping shade of a river’s edge willow tree
- Middle age
- Cruising on a skateboard
- Waiting fo the team bus
- Knowing “it’s always something’
- Butter on every bite
- Watching football practice
- Thermal blankets
- Moving to a better place
- A popular girl
- Juniper berries
- Punctuality
- A boss who lets you be autonomous
- The act of worship
- Oatmeal raisin cookies
- Old-fashioned waffle-weave kitchen towels
- Treasure hunts
- The TV Guide channel
- The playground of life
- All 1440 minutes a day
- Getting a puppy
- An après-ski atmosphere
- Enjoying a glass of iced tea under the grape arbor
- Canada
- Particle physics
- A bathroom mirror
- The ease which we fall in love or fall in love all over again
- Writing letters in an outdoor cafe
- Theories on pyramid building
- The universe
- The sound of a clock ticking
- Mutual friends
- Going all out
- Nordic skiing
- Country fair signs
- Someone with the biggest smile in the world
- Resting under a favourite tree
- Honeymoon spots
- Crimped hair
- An escape hatch
- Twilight hour
- Oxford
- Egg-drop soup
- Acoustic guitars
- Making a fall clothes-buying list
- Blue french horn
- Buying and painting unfinished furniture
- Sneakers with dress suits
- The luxury of a fresh towel
- Noise-free zones
- Candies under pillows
- Bicycling in the evening
- Open rolling fields and stone walls
- Barbecue pits
- Backup pits
- Fanning yourself
- Blooming tropical flowers
- Desires made out of nostalgia and imagination
- Mountain vistas
- Standing in the doorway
- Well-filled bookshelves
- Plan B
- Backup vocalists
- Coming up with ideas
- A newsroom at deadline
- Outdoor careers
- Chopping fresh herbs
- Bus excursions
- Lame ducks
- Summertime
- Bakery boxes tied with string
- The honk of car horns and car alarm systems
- Retirees in the Sunbelt
- Never having used training wheels
- Empanadas
- Beaches you are sure no one else has discovered
- Rekindling friendships
- The Titanic
- Taking an elevator friend to lunch
- People who give more of themselves
- Privacy
- Conventional wisdom
- Mindful consuming
- Postcard vies
- Hawaii
- Las Vegas nights
- A rolltop desk
- Boxershorts
- Living in the place you love
- An I miss you note
- Winning a prize
- A chance to detox
- University
- Learning to say “no”
- The green shoots of new plants
- Coca-Cola commercials
- Getting sun-kissed on lunch hour
- Cricket matches
- Ping-Pong
- Youtube
- Pizza
- Throbbing downtowns
- Foodie-traveler hot spots
- Authoring or editing a Wikipedia article
- Taking your coffee on a walk
- James Bond movies
- Being swept away by sheer delight
- Towels that absorb well
- A hippo having its teeth cleaned
- Bacon-and-egg skillset
- Money-back guarantees
- Owning your own barn
- Colourful butterflies
- Fireside conversations
- Having a scratch for every itch
- Setting a good example
- Mindfulness
- Piano chords
- Daisies in the kitchen
- A smile from a stranger
- Interview show
- Your Family
- Letting go of the gas pump perfectly
- Bugs Bunny
- When mellow days turn into brisk evenings
- Mushy talk
- The roar of a crowd
- Weird biology teachers
+1 Life