Five Things Making Me Happy (“Rhapsody in Blue” / ancient codes)

Hello,

This week marked the eighth anniversary of the Happier with Gretchen Rubin podcast.

With each anniversary, we celebrate by reviewing some of our favorite try-this-at-home suggestions, hacks, and moments from the previous year. For instance, this year, some of our favorite ideas included “Turn deprivation into indulgence,” “Save someone’s life,” “Create a five-senses portrait,” and “Stop ‘phubbing’ (phone snubbing) people.”

In the tumult of everyday life, it’s easy to fall into the habit of always looking forward, so it’s helpful to have an annual reminder to stop and look back. Elizabeth and I had a great time reminiscing about everything that happened this year—we’d already forgotten a lot of it!

Onward,

5 Things Making Me Happy

On vacation in Mexico, I decided to watch the sun rise one morning. Beautiful. (I watched by myself; no other family member wanted to wake up to keep me company.)

Do you need a quick jolt of energy or cheer? Listen to the end of George Gershwin’s brilliant “Rhapsody in Blue.” Listen to the whole thing, or if you have only a few minutes, start listening at 15:58. This is a song with a big finish. It brings tears to my eyes, and also makes me want to run around the block.

I love reading stories about historical treasures that have been unearthed from some library cabinet or museum cupboard after having been misplaced, miscataloged, or forgotten. The latest find? In a library in Paris, three codebreakers found and decoded 57 lost letters of Mary, Queen of Scots, written between 1578 and 1584. Historians knew that these letters had existed, but they had no idea where they were.

When we love an experience, we want to learn more about it and talk to other people about it. I love the TV show Game of Thrones, and one of my favorite episodes is Season 6, Episode 10, “The Winds of Winter.” To cheer myself up yesterday, I listened, yet again, to the episode of the brilliant Binge Mode podcast where Mallory Rubin and Jason Concepcion discuss it. My favorite part is when Mallory Rubin chokes up as she repeats the words of ten-year-old Lady Lyanna Mormont: “You swore allegiance to House Stark, Lord Glover. But in their hour of greatest need, you refused the call. And you, Lord Cerwyn, your father was skinned alive by Ramsay Bolton. Still, you refused the call. But House Mormont remembers. The North remembers. We know no king but the King in the North whose name is Stark.” Now I need to go watch the scene on YouTube.

It always makes me happy to learn the precise term for a familiar object. I even own a Visual Dictionary, so if I don’t know a word, I can look it up. Today, when listening to Elizabeth Enright’s brilliant children’s book Gone-Away Lake, I learned the word “creel,” which I’ve always inelegantly called a “fishing basket.” “Creel” is much nicer.

Updates

Marie Kondo published some excerpts from my forth-coming book on her website. Her article discusses how we can use the power of scent to connect to the world around us.