happiest

In the wee hours of the morning, once we got over the usual "are you awake's" and "now I am's," Ed read to me an article from Madison.com in which they listed the twenty five lists on which the city of Madison showed up recently. Most were not surprises: we score high in being a place that's livable, bike friendly, nature focused, kind to seniors, good life-work balance, etc. But one was a tiny bit of a surprise (only because all places listed were a surprise): it was a ranking of cities in the US on some platform of happiness. Madison, it turns out, is number 2 in the country in terms of happiness. [I know that all you want now is to know the other happy places, to see if your own home town made the cut. I'm here to please my readers, so here it is, starting with the happiest of happy places: Lincoln NE, Madison WI, Raleigh NC, Portland ME, Billings MT, Sioux Falls SD, Burlington VT, Minneapolis MN, Anchorage AK, and Denver CO. Find the full list of top 100 here.]

It's true that this list was compiled over a year ago and by Men's Health, so perhaps there's a bias to it, but let's not get too caught up on technicalities. Their sources sounded quite legit. We're happy, okay?!?

Immediately I wanted to bring up the equally recent list (this one from 2022, found here) of happy countries. Perhaps you've seen this one?  It goes like this, again starting with the happiest: Finland, Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Luxembourg, New Zealand, and Austria. [As you can see if you read the full report -- the US is number 19, so not too bad, but given its wealth -- well, not too good either.]

You can't take this stuff too seriously. Or... can you? What strikes you about these happy places? They are northern for the most part. They are not of one political yoke. Lincoln NE leans Republican (slightly), Madison WI leans Democrat (heavily). Finland is believed to be the most socially progressive country in the world  (here's one source for this claim) with a woman as Prime Minister, while in Switzerland the far right party still holds a considerable amount of political sway (though the Greens are closing in). Women gained the right to vote only in 1971. 

So now that we have removed political leanings from the discussion, we can freely speculate where this pull toward a good life comes from. How is it that these places have fostered resilience (because during a long and dark Finnish winter, you have to be resilient, no?) and community and patient perseverance, at the same time that equality and access to nature and to good health care and education have remained priorities?

Of course, at the individual level, happiness is an entirely separate matter. A city or a nation can be ranked as happy, but are you yourself in that boat of happy sailing? Is yours a good life? Granted that during the pandemic we all slumped into a stressed, perhaps even panicked, worry-filled and isolated daily existence. But assuming that you and your loved ones survived, are you now recovering those precious days of joyful living? I hope that, like my good friend in Michigan who, despite huge obstacles, nonetheless finds moments of joy every single day of her life, you too are able to list many things that in the course of a day make you happy. Who knows, maybe your city can kick Madison off its pedestal someday. Or join us on the happiness platform. Well, on the second to highest platform, unless we topple that darn Lincoln NE and rise to the top! Or, better yet -- share space up there! There's room for very many in the happiness club of our beautiful planet.

I make my way to feed the animals. We wont get above freezing today and there's a good side to this: the ground is crunchy rather than muddy. The air is crisp, bracing and energizing. Us happy northerners know how to bundle up and head out!

Breakfast? Back to oatmeal. I mean, we can't abandon the healthy stuff completely in this fast approaching holiday season.

The morning hours are spent on trying out the new recovery plug for my weird camera card. And it works!  Accidentally erased photos -- recovered! (Here are two chucklers that you missed in Sunday's post: cheepers on the run and Ed, not quite up for breakfast.)

Eventually, I leave, heading first toward Clasen's Bakery. This place rolls in the Christmas season for us. The German Bakery has been a Madison staple for many decades. I took my kids there when they were little -- for the Christmas cookies and especially for the chocolate covered gingerbread hearts, moons, and stars.

It's too early to go there with the kids. But not too early for me to stock up on the cookies! That little gingerbread treat with a cup of milky coffee has to be the best afternoon snack on a cold winter's day. The cookies are only sold now, through mid December. No reason not to eat them even before Thanksgiving, right??

Oh, but at Clasen's, temptation strikes hard. How about the gingerbread with a dollop of raspberry jam? Or the printer - with honey, orange peel and hazelnuts, all covered with chocolate? Or the almond windmills? Or how about these spicy cookies?

My cart is filling up. And bread! Let's try their baguette! (Verdict later: it's very good! a little chubby, but the taste is very nice!)

And then I pick up Snowdrop at school and bring her to the farmette.

Play outside, fence with Ed (whose weapon is a baguette)...

... read and eat, play inside. That's a routine that is so engrained (well, maybe not the baguette duel), so loved by her, that we both fall into it without hesitation.

And then I drop her at an evening class, do some late errands and I smile as I turn toward the farmhouse road. I'm ready to go inside where all is blissfully warm and happy. 

My mind is on that word today and I think -- yeah, no matter what, despite it all, we are so very happy. And then that superstitious quiver sounds within me: if you admit to happiness, might you lose it?

I pull into the driveway. Ed is coming up the path. Help me out here -- I call, as I carry a carton of holiday bottles to the farmhouse. As he pulls open the door for me, he says: there's an opossum in the coop. The chickens are scattered up and down the barn wall. But he got Happy.

He got Happy. Our rooster that we bought a handful of years ago to protect the girls from predators. Did he fight the opossum while they fled? Or, was it that his old limp kept him from escaping in time? 

We both loved that chicken because he was so, well, happy! Unusual disposition for a rooster. Never a threat to the hens, to humans. Just, well, happy with his girls. He did have some kind of disability and try as we did to figure out where it came from and how to fix it, we got nowhere. He limped and stumbled and keeping up with the girls was getting to be hard for him. This morning I found him snuggled next to Peach in the barn -- she was his favorite old girl -- and I thought how sweet they looked. Two oldies, finding comfort in each others presence. 

Ed buried Happy and carried out the opossum and we managed to pick up all the seven girls and put them in the coop. At home, we talked about getting a new rooster. Maybe. Sigh...

With so much love...