Please Be a Part of the Handing Down Happiness Project.

I am concerned about American society.  I know I'm not alone.  We drown in media that tells us about war, home invasions, murders, drive-by shootings and fires, day after day.  In American homes, spouses and parents communicate guided by their individual personal experiences and expectations, with no pattern of guidance to direct them toward compatibility and collaboration.  Children often fend for themselves, developing patterns to keep parents and authorities at bay, experiencing no support except from peers.  Frustrated parents try to connect.  How many involved can fall prey to the belief that this unsatisfying struggle is...life?

If this pattern continues without intervention, if each American must re-invent the wheel in his/her attempt to be a loving partner, spouse, and parent, the reality of family will continue to deteriorate. The result will be shorter marriages, higher divorce rates, more family violence, more school violence, continued degradation of the educational system and less education of the American workforce.  To debate the various possible causes doesn't help.  Whether it's the economy, the two working spouses, failing educational system or other options, without direct intervention, including learning to communicate in a healthy way, the situation will continue to decline.

Imagine an America where there are media reports of people doing good, where children learn to recognize and communicate their needs, where parents who haven't learned those skills, may learn them to bring calm to the home.  Where the goal, the effort, the education, and the expectation is that families put energy into being a happy, safe-haven for all members to return to.  What if life were other than a sentence of rowing upstream, worrying, rowing, capsizing, rowing harder and having the expectation of toil until either death or retirement. Imagine life as one writer put it, guiding the canoe downstream from destination to destination. The home will be a shelter from the storm, a place of celebration, of appreciation, of support, where everyone practices healthy communication.  A place where problems are recognized and solutions sought, whether it's juvenile pot-smoking or Dad's workaholism.  Happiness won't be a daydream, but a path to step onto, for all the family to experience and relish.

The Handing Down Happiness project is a plan to spread the wealth of wisdom that grandparents have accumulated.  We'll use video snippets of Grandma and/or Grandpa passing along some "experience" they've grown from, some changes in attitude that they wish they'd made years earlier.  If they've picked up a thing or two, why not pass it on.  We'll provide technical support.  We'll also help the wise realize they have something of value to add to the mix.  Please be a part of it.

I have learned some things in my life.  I'm happier now than I used to be.  Happy is now my default way of being. And the sensation isn't what I used to think it was.  It's nice to jump to my feet when my team wins the Super Bowl, but that's something else.  A moment of excitement. What I am experiencing is quieter.  Kind of like the pleasure of seeing your child graduate, or being publicly thanked for your work.  A warm place.  A nice place to spend time.  Troubles still happen, deaths in the family, grief is still real, but where I return to is the nice place.  I'd like to help others find this nice place.

I thought I was unique.  Ha!  As I talk with my 60+ year old contemporaries, I find we have all gone through many growth experiences.  We have all looked into spirituality, self-development, or ways to help US society. My high school classmates have been working on themselves as well.  Many of us discovered ways of being that allow us to be freer or more focused, appreciative, relaxed and in different ways, happier.