Thank God it’s Monday, again. I always look forward to every Monday. They’re my 52 Chances a year, in which I get to share Memories of My Mom with you. Therefore, happy Monday!
Happy August and happy national Happiness Happens Month! Happiness really isn’t hard to find. It happens all around us, all the time – but especially in this last full-summer month before the kids go back to school. Correspondingly, Friday is National Happiness Happens Day.
By the way, it’s similarly Family Fun Month and I know happiness also happens whenever we’re having fun as a family unit. They are memory-making (and picture-posting) moments that bring us happiness and smiles for a lifetime of recollections.
I found happiness with my children at carnivals, festivals and fairs; as well as while camping or vacationing, watching fireworks, going to the beach or a water park, biking, hiking – the list goes on and on. Just as I found happiness, doing the same things as a child, with my own siblings and parents.
Last week, I mentioned how summertime is so fun, despite the brutal heat because, while the kids are out of school, many families get to enjoy a variety of exciting memory-making events together. As I’ve written before, happiness happens with family fun.
I happily remember, from my own childhood, many of our summer family vacations – including Mackinaw City and Mackinac Island (in northern Michigan), the Soo Locks and Tahquamenon Falls (in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula), Toronto and Niagara Falls (in Ontario), Cedar Point and Sea World (in Ohio), Los Angeles and the Torrance area (in California).
Mom always joked that her summer vacation didn’t start until my siblings and I went back to school in September – but she was actually the one who made our summer adventures so happy, so memorable, and so much fun.
“If true happiness [was] acquired through persistence and patience, it would be like the fable of the elderly Chinese profit who asked for a needle when none could be found. However, somebody offered him a crowbar and a file. He was pleased and assured his friends that it was only a matter of time before he could produce the needle he wanted.” – Gloria Pitzer [As seen in… Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – The Best of the Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; January 2018, p. 304)]
I read, on Healthline.com, about 25 daily habits that can make you feel happy. “How to be Happy” is a wonderfully informative and timeless article written by Ann Pietrangelo (Jan. 15, 2019). I’ve also found some of the habits that Ann mentions to be popular on several other “lists”, regarding “how to achieve happiness”.
FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…
As seen in…
Gloria Pitzer’s Christmas Card Cookbook (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; Dec. 1983, p. 19)
HAPPINESS
THE CRITICS ALWAYS HAVE a field day with the subject of being happy, as if it were an unrealistic condition to which no one was truly entitled.
Those who claim to be specialists in the field are skeptical about the achievement of what is commonly considered happiness and take care to caution us against hoping to attain such a state, as if it were something only fools would desire.
I weigh the happiness I have had and what I feel is mine today with a sense of relief, that it is more than I ever expected – and probably more than I deserve. In keeping, though, with the commentaries of the cynics, one might think that it is unlikely and unrealistic to be truly happy today.
To be truly and totally happy, the cynical critics give us an unrealistic ream of necessities that we are first expected to possess. We shouldn’t have to be totally happy every minute of every day.
Otherwise, the state of absolute contentment just might become so boring, to us, that we would lose our appreciation for it. Every challenge we meet, each crisis we overcome, weighs more on the scales of success, than all of the gold in Fort Knox!
There are moments when we are the happiest, in spite of fret and discouragement, when we rouse ourselves from weariness and self-pity and realize that we are more important to the happiness of others than [for which] we give ourselves credit.
In knowing how important we are to others, we can find a degree of contentment that is often sufficient to clean the slate of any self-imposed put-downs. All it takes, sometimes, to put us into one of those moods, is the undeserved criticism of someone whose opinion of us is quite important.
Of course, the self-centered cynic, whose job in life, it would seem, is to constantly find fault with those whose ideas they do not agree, would try to make our little contentments seem like a fraudulent attempt to deceive ourselves and others.
Happiness is the one state of being that comes in so many different forms that the righteous critic, the cynic, the skeptic, can only feel it when they are being proven correct; while the rest of us find it, in doing what the cynics criticize us for doing.
Happiness, if only at wonderful intervals, is no miracle – no coincidence. It’s a happening! Or better said – a happy-ning! The scales on which we each weigh what is of value to us that gives us happiness, balance out what we expect with what we get.
One can find happiness in getting what they want – or in wanting what they get! One book [about which] I recently heard seems to cover the whole subject nicely. The book is entitled, ‘How to be Happy Without Money’ – but it costs $300.
Most of us think of happiness as an end or a means to an end – when, in reality, happiness is the beginning, not the end… and seldom the means to anything that does not reach out and touch somebody else with unselfishness and charity!
My favorite childhood memories are of those summer vacations I mentioned earlier – Mackinaw City and Mackinac Island were the best places of all. They offer amazing experiences that take you back in time to Michigan’s earliest known history of settlers. With all the tremendous sights to see and things to do there, you just can’t pack it all into one day.
One summer, we were staying at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island as the movie, Somewhere in Time, starring Christopher Reeves, Jane Seymore, and Christopher Plummer, was being filmed there. We personally met and talked to the latter two stars.
It was a special experience for all of us. Did you know, decades before that, another movie was also filmed there? Ethel Merman swam in the Grand Hotel’s pool, during the filming of the 1947 film, This Time for Keeps. A few years ago, per ClickOnDetroit.com (07/13/2022), “Michigan’s Mackinac Island [was] named ‘Best Island In The Continental US’”.
Things To Do In Upper Peninsula, from TripAdvisor.com, offers over 800 great suggestions. They also recommend over 60 Best Upper Peninsula Hidden Gem Attractions to visit. At OnlyInYourState.com/Michigan, 16 Places In Michigan You Must See, by Serena Maria Daniels (March 9, 2021), also includes Mackinac Island.
“Happiness is a state of thought. It begins with gratitude for all we’ve already received and achieved – not with what we ‘own’ or the ‘things’…” – Gloria Pitzer, as seen in Gloria Pitzer’s Secret RecipesTM Newsletter, Issue #218 (Secret RecipesTM, Marysville, MI; Nov. 2000, p. 5)
Mom often wrote about finding the blessings in any given day or moment; good and bad, alike. She also wrote about finding happiness in every day we’re given to be here because she truly believed that every new day was a turning point and each one came with some sort of blessing in it.
That’s just how she was raised, being grateful for something everyday – not just for Life’s gifts and the joyful moments, but also for Life’s challenges from which she had the opportunity to learn and grow. “Stuff” may make you feel a little giddy, but true happiness comes from within us.
Emotions and memories are unavoidably connected. Albert Einstein said, on happiness, “A happy man is too satisfied with the present to dwell too much on the future. Outer changes always begin with an inner change of attitude.”
A modest life often brings more happiness than the pursuit of success and money. Sadly, there are still those who believe their level of happiness is in direct proportion to their level of success and financial worth. How much happiness can you truly find in “stuff”? They (whoever “they” are) say it’s the journey and what you learn throughout life that really matters.
“Success levels”, if such things can truly be measured, have no real correlation with the things one has nor how much money one acquires. If you’re hunting for happiness through money and things, you may find some false hope but probably not true happiness. Here’s what Mom had to say about that…
MORE FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…
As seen in…
This is not a Cook Book – It’s Gloria Pitzer’s Food for Thought (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; Oct. 1986, p. 8)
HAPPINESS IS…
I WASN’T KIDDING WHEN I said I envied happy people more than I did wealthy or famous people. From what I’ve read and what the rich and famous have said in filmed interviews, not too many of them are really happy with their wealth and their fame.
John Luther said that ‘happiness is not a matter of good fortune or worldly possessions. It’s a mental attitude. It comes from appreciating what we have, instead of being miserable about what we don’t have. It’s so simple – yet so hard for the human mind to comprehend.’ I agree!
LAST THOUGHTS…
Thanks for visiting! I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my memories of my mom, her memories, and other related things. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email me at therecipedetective@outlook.com. You can also find me on Facebook: @TheRecipeDetective.
IN CLOSING…
In honor of TODAY, being National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day, here’s Mom’s copycat recipe for “Brave Kid’s Chocolate Chip Cookies”; as seen in… Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – The Best of the Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, p. 222). [A revised reprint of Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, 3rd Edition)]. As always, I’m asking only for proper credit if you care to re-share it.
#NationalChocolateChipCookieDay
P.S. Food-for-thought until next Monday…
August observes… National Dog Month, International Peace Month, National Back to School Month, National Brownies at Brunch Month, National Catfish Month, National Goat Cheese Month, National Golf Month, National Panini Month, National Sandwich Month, and more.
Other celebrations this week include… The Dog Days of Summer (July 3rd – Aug. 11th, for 2025).
Today is also… National Coast Guard Day. [NOTE: On this day, in 2008, my brother, Mike, launched TheRecipeDetective.com’s original website.]
Tomorrow is… National Work Like A Dog Day and National Oyster Day.
Wednesday, August 6th, is… National Root Beer Float Day, National Fresh Breath Day, and National Wiggle Your Toes Day.
August 7th is… National Lighthouse Day and National Raspberries N’ Cream Day. Plus, as the first Thursday in August (for 2025), it’s also… National IPA Day.
August 9th is… National Rice Pudding Day and National Book Lovers Day. Plus, as the second Saturday in August (for 2025), it’s also… National Bowling Day and National Garage Sale Day. Additionally, as the start of the second weekend in August (for 2025), it’s also the start of… National Kool-Aid Days.
Sunday, August 10th, is… National Connecticut Day, National Lazy Day, and National S’mores Day. Plus, as the start of the second full week of August (for 2025), it’s also the start of… National Bargain Hunting Week, National Kool-Aid Days, and National Resurrect Romance Week (likewise, it’s Romance Awareness Month).
Enjoy your week!
…31 down, 21 to go!
