Me-Now-Views... the 8 pix of happiness challenge

There is a kind of happiness and wonder that makes you serious. It is too good to waste on jokes. 
(C.S. Lewis)

Our Oz-mate Charlie nominated me for the meme which originated with a young lady's blog here in UK; she is not a Blogvillager, but her initiating post had lots of animals on and somehow it got picked up here - and why not?! It is a lovely theme to use, so am putting the rest of the gardens visit on hold till next week and going with this.  There are some 'guidelines', viz:

1. Thank your nominator and link them to this post.    OKAY - THANKS CHARLIE MATE!!!
2. Link to the creator of the tag.  Ariel's little corner of the Internet.  OKAY, CHECK.
3. Post your eight photos of happiness.                 SEE BELOW!
4. Pop in a brief description of the photo, why you chose it, or just let the picture do the talking.                    5. Spread the happiness and tag up to ten other bloggers. HMMM, AS MANY HAVE DONE THIS ALREADY, AM NOT SURE... ABBY, HAVE YOU DONE THIS YET?  MADI, WHAT ABOUT YOU?  OOH OOH OOH  BERTIE BOFFIN - YOU CAN COME UP WITH A WORTHY 8 I AM SURE!!! ....and perhaps some of my other blogpals would like to have a go...MERLE??? JOANNE??? ...aw heck - it's out there, have a go whoever you are!!!

Okay, now for mine... 

The J's have to be included here. I strongly believe that happiness is where I lay my heart - and as I choose to lay my heart only within my own being, happiness is available at all times to me. Happiness can be transformed to pure joy by sharing the external world with others; companion animals are certainly a 'value-add' to happiness!

Sydney. Rather a tourist shot this one, but we have icons for a reason. This one represents OZ as a whole; the country of my choosing and which embraced me fully.

Star Trek. Okay, sci-fi (not fantasy!!!) in general pleases me; but ST in particular. Keeping up with science-proper and even presenting science things with which to grapple (think sliding doors and hand-held comms devices (mobile fones), PADDs (personal access data devices - tablets and aforesaid fones)... Then there is the social ethos and philosophy which underpin... you will see much more writing on this in the future of this blog...yes that's me dressed as the Kai.

The world. In the sense of it's physical presence. Nature is, of course, a key component of happiness for this traveler - but cities can hold a similar fascination; particularly where there is architecture of note and different society.


Be it OZ, India, Africa or Scotland... wherever I travel there is happiness to be found.

India. Could have shown you any number of the usual sorts of things - but I am also at my most peaceful (ie happiest) when walking the lone path. Discovery and constant learning is what tells me  I am alive. To look back and be glad of the path behind and being keen to keep trekking is a thing to treasure. The more one travels, the more one finds the similarities in the world and the differences drop away.

Faith. I have never been alone. That the path took me East is a wonder and a joy. 

Happiness resides in my heart, my heart resides in spirit.

Having such a centred place of happiness means that one can look up and out and be ever in awe of the magic of creation. Happiness is knowing one's place in the great scheme and being able to surrender to it. The grindstone of life is put into perspective.