Happiness and contentment

Parsley, basil, mint, and sunshine

Everyone knows that happiness is more than just the absence of sadness or strife.  Happiness, and its nearly identical twin, contentment, are something more, and above all else they are elusive.

What is happiness?  Most people would say they know it when they feel it, and most would probably also admit to not feeling it often enough.  It can be hard to grasp, and harder yet to keep.

As Americans, we're told that, along with life and liberty, the pursuit of happiness is an inalienable right.  It's in the Declaration of Independence, so it must be true, right?

I feel like I've spent most of my life waiting for the "next big thing" to happen to me:  the thing that would finally make me happy.  There have been so many of those "things" through the years, with retirement being one of the most recent ones.  In between there have been lots and lots of mini-goals, what most people (including me) would call "something to look forward to," i.e. something to help you to put one foot in front of the other and get through as many days as necessary to reach the appointed promised land.

The trouble with this approach to life is that with every sigh of "Oh, how I wish it was time for my vacation!" or "Only 273 days until retirement!" you're basically wishing your life away.  Believe me, I know.  I'm as guilty as anyone.  It seems like just last week I was 25.  But, in fairness, you've got to do what you've got to do to get through what you've got to get through.  I certainly did, so I'm not judging.

I've made up my mind that I'm not going to do that anymore.  Life is precious, and none of us knows how many days we are allotted.  As Carly Simon told us so many years ago, I'm going to "...stay right here 'cause these are the good old days."

As I write this post, I'm happier than I have been in a very long time, and it has nothing to do with things, events, or other distractions.  It does have everything to do with feeling comfortable living in this 60 year old skin, with laughter, with spending time close to nature, and with good and loving companionship.

I hope to be able to sustain this happiness - this contentment - in a way I have never been able to do:  by embracing every day to the fullest, with gratitude, optimism, and my eyes open wide.

Too corny?

Water

Water:  I like it all.  As found in nature, that is.  The beach, of course.  But I truly do mean all of it, or at least all that I have experienced.  From the vast ocean to a tiny babbling brook, from a calm lake or a tiny tadpole pond to a roaring waterfall, to rivers of all types, the sight and sound of water gives me a feeling of connectedness that I just don't get from anything else.

Growing up in Tampa surrounded by water, I took it for granted.  I guess that's what most children do, but it is the one thing about Florida that I have consistently missed.  For the last 20 years, on my annual pilgrimage to Sanibel, reaching the first bridge over any body of water makes me smile inside.  And even visiting my parents in Tampa, approaching the bridge onto Davis Islands makes my heart lift and my mind drift back to all the times I crossed the bay on a school bus as a child.

There is water in Atlanta, of course.  There's the Chattahoochee River, and any number of smaller rivers, creeks, and ponds.  And if you go a bit further outside the perimeter, there's Lake Lanier, Lake Allatoona, and many other man-made lakes as well as whitewater rivers, waterfalls, and more.  But somehow that water never seemed close enough at hand, and I yearned to feel that connection more strongly, the way I had as a child.

Inverness is intertwined with water.  Of course, there is the River Ness, leading to fabled Loch Ness.  But there are also the firths - Beauly, Inverness, Moray, Dornoch, and Cromarty - leading to the North Sea.  The North Sea!  There is even a man-made waterway - the Caledonian Canal - a fascinating and historic man-made achievement in its own right.  And all of this is strictly in immediate proximity to Inverness.  If you venture further, you will find more water.

Enough to satisfy even me.

I've included below a small selection of photos I've taken of some of the water I've seen and experienced since arriving in Scotland a mere 4 weeks ago.

Rosemarkie on the Black Isle

Beauly Firth from Craig Phadraig

Hill lochan near Blackfold

Muirtown Pools and the Beauly Firth

Loch Ness from the beach at Lochend

Same view, through the gorse

Beauly Firth from Blackpark

Towards the Black Isle from Whiteness Head

River Ness and city centre from Inverness Castle

Mute Swans on the ice on Loch Flemington

Cromarty Firth viewed through Cnoc Fyrish Monument

Rocky surf near Chanonry Point on the Black Isle

Muirtown Basin on the Caledonian Canal

Rogie Falls on the Blackwater River

Inverness city walk

Inverness seems to be a very pedestrian-friendly city, and the pedestrians certainly take advantage of it.  You can walk along the River Ness, across multiple bridges, even on the Ness Islands, right into the "city centre" (what we would call "downtown"), by homes and businesses old and new, almost always well-planned, well-landscaped, and thoughtfully set out just as you would want them to be if you had planned them for your own pleasure.  You can visit an actual castle, which now holds courts, with a spectacular view of what lies beyond.

A view from Inverness Castle

Inverness, the unofficial capital of the Highlands, gives the impression of being more cosmopolitan than its population of only around 60,000 would lead you to assume, but I suppose the world is simply a smaller place these days, no matter where you go.  International influences and cultural opportunities abound, and it seems it even has a special niche where weather is concerned, at least in winter, usually shrugging off the worst of what areas to the south and west have to endure.

Finally, it is intimately surrounded by so much natural beauty - forests, mountains, coastline, lakes and rivers - that it would take a lifetime to explore it all.

It is truly a very particular paradise.