Every moment, every negative, every positive, really, just about everything can have a happy spot. You just have to look for it. I know, that is easier to say than do. A tragedy is not the time to really dive in to the happy spots, but you can think of things that make you happy during those difficult times. Not to get too far in to the depth of despair but I will say, certain thoughts can always brighten my day. My grandchildren's laughter, a hug from my husband or children, my very serious, very dramatic, yet very comical dalmatian pup Riley, all can always brighten any day. Gradually over time, I have really tried to focus on being happy. Someone told me once that happiness is a concious choice. I like to think that I make the right choices but sometimes I don't and this is where it is so essential to surround myself with the right people. If I am spinning down to a place of unhappiness, stress, saddness, you name it, I need a "happiness liason" to pull me up . This is where my choice of partner, and friends, and even my choice of dogs are all essential. The ones that enourage me to pull my self up, dust myself off and look for the happy spots. If I don't have enough time with my "happiness Liasons" I can feel it and I will reach out for a girls night or coffee. Everyone should sorround themselves with people that lift them up. I am a 60 something year old woman, that is moving in to the next phase of life, about 8 years ago I left a wonderful career that just made me burn the candle at both ends. I (with my husband of course) made the choice to leave for quality of life. Eventually, I started a career in Real Estate, it is so rewarding to help people find the home of thier dreams, but has its challenges too. I am transitioning in to the enjoy life stage, trying to get me husband to retire and lets just be gypsy's traveling the country on our motorcycles at times, and at other times with our pup Riley, using our house in Maine as our home base. That's the dream. But I don't have my chief "happiness liason" ( husband) on board yet. Working on it My happiest of spots is when I am with Riley. He makes me smile, even when he is bad. I can't take him for a walk with out someone stopping to say hi. He is like a unicorn to some, they oooh and aaah and say they have never seen a dalmatian in real life. It makes me smile every time. Now don't get me wrong, I love my family and friends and they all make me extremely happy, but Riley doesn't give a poop about anything ecxept his own happiness, and his happiness includes me, so somehow that brings me joy as well. How did I end up with Dalmatians? Riley is our 4th Dalmatian. Way back when, we decided to get a dog, my husband was in the Air Force and we were stationed in Germany. I was missing not having a dog, and the kids were old enough to share in the responsibilties. ( as much as 5 and 6 year olds can share in pet duties) I love dalmatians, they reminded me of little horses and I had horses as a young girl. We had the opportunity to get a dalmatian puppy and we jumped on it. Arista was our first. She was a bit aloof but yet loving at the same time, since then we had Domino, the best behaved dog we have ever had, and Penney, who moved a number of times with us and was very adaptable. Now we have Riley. He is really not the best behaved. He is a bit of a barker when the others were not. He is also a love bug, my shadow, loves to sleep at me feet or touch me if at all possible. Just seeing a dalmatian makes me smile, so I guess maybe subconciously I was choosing happiness right from the start. Every day, I look for the happy spots. Today I saw a red cardinal on the back fence, Riley was ignoring him and the cardinal didn't seem to like that. He jumped along the fence following Riley. That made me smile. Just a moment of happy, for no reason other than being happy. Those are the spots to grab on to! Looking for a happy spot isn't difficult, you just have to recognize them when they happen.