Category Archives: guest blog author

Nearly every single day, I resolve that I have no right to complain. I guess I’m not a very good “resolver” as I don’t resolve it in the face of others’ woes and misfortunes; I resolve it in the face of happiness.

And I’ve discovered that there’s a lot of it going around. In my close environment, I am happiness victimized by my eighteen month old niece and dog. Ella leads me on a path where the sun always shines, ice cream cones are actually fountains that trickle all the way down into your bib, the sea makes babies float and a 15 minute song can be composed to original music and the single phrase “na.na.na”.

And as far as Troy is concerned, the world needs to be exposed to more tail wags and permanently wet dogs. He does his best to apply this theory by sitting down in front of someone who thinks he’s cute and presents his perfect imitation of Dug the Dog from the movie Up: “My name is Dug (Troy). I have just met you and I love you.”

The consequence, prior to the above mentioned resolution, is that I’m overcome with happiness when they do those things they do, and I realize what a complete waste of time complaining is.

It’s not that I want to be perfect. I sincerely have my doubts about that status, but it really is a good thing to be happy.

I’m going to train Troy to bark at me if I ever dare kvetch again.