Tagged -- 10 things that make me happy

I have been tagged to list ten things that make me happy. I've thought about it and can't do specifics - how can I say Mozart and not Schubert, dogs and not cats; Vermeer and not Lucius Freud? Can't do it. So here are ten broad areas. They are not in priority order, because what makes me happy is what is happening at the moment -- moments [now] is all we have. Photos sometimes cover more than one topic.

1. People: Of course family, my daughters and all the rest, people who are nice to me, people who talk about interesting things, people who listen, people who are funny -- a sort of 1A: conversation that is full of real communication, that is fun, honest.

2. books - good book that tell me ancient stories and stories of places and times I cannot visit, stores that are funny and true and invent. Books that give me information of all sorts, and I include magazines, newspapers, also drama -- we cannot leave out Shakespeare or Ibsen or Mamet or Shepherd or any of the others. Books that make me think and laugh and cry and see the world as the varied, good and awful and amazing place it is.

3. Music, the classics, traditional, my own on the piano, and the big entertainment, operas and ballet, and all the other dancing. There is so much music, I can never know enough of it.

4. travel -- whether it's to beautiful, beleaguered Tibet or a few miles down up the road to a lovely beach, all travel - I want to see the whole world and I have never been unhappy about a trip I took [but I am unhappy about the insult and intrusion of the idiotic security methods in airport, that part of travel I hate.] 5. Walking/hiking, whether in the Himalayas or Central park, the street from my house to the post office. Walking is my favorite exercise; it is travel at human pace, time to really look around, really see where I am and what I share the world with.

6. writing. I have loved writing since I learned how to do it, loved filling out tag-lists, questionnaires, writing notes and letters and stories and novels and plays and poems and non-fiction, blogs about anything at all, even love crossword puzzles and Scrabble because they are akin. Love that I can say what I think even if no one is listening.

7. quilts -- I love turning fabric into different designs, useful items, and decorative items. I love seeing what others have done, the invention the careful techniques, the history, the different types in different parts of the world.

8. arts and crafts -- from the 45,000 year old cave paintings to today's geniuses [but not all of today's art, for soe of it is ugly and some I don't understand] Museums make me happy, craft shows are fascinating and full of the invention of the human mind in all sorts of materials. And 8A -- fashion. I am very fashionable but I love the joie de vie, the textures, the colors the exuberance and endless variety.

9. nature -- animals, birds, plants, insects, fishes -- all the variety and beauty and wondrousness of nature that shares the planet and minds its own business [even the dread mosquito is minding his business when he sucks my blood]. Even in a desert nature is beautiful, in the middle of the ocean, likewise.

10 food. I'm not a gourmet cook or a connoisseur of food and drink, but, like everyone else, a good meal, however plain or fancy makes me happy. And those wonders that are all too rare today -- truly ripe peaches, plums, raspberries, tomatoes ... to find one is pure happiness ... and then there's chocolate ....