999 + 1 Things to be happy about

Jonas Morgner

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
Google
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

999 + 1 Things to be happy about

Written by Jonas Morgner