Leaves of Grass (and Flowers)

Spent the weekend hanging out with my parents.  Although much of their visit was altogether low key, we had fun just relaxing, going out for breakfast, doing some shopping, etc.

One highlight for me was our trip to the Como Park Conservatory on Saturday.  While warmer weather has descended, snow remains on the ground.  Spring may still be in the distance (I'm not holding my breathe), but inside the greenhouse gardens of Como, it is in full force.  

We walked through the more tropical climes, soaking in the fresh plantings and smells of dirt.  Ferns, palms, all matter of spice & fruit trees can be found here.  Allspice?  Yep.  Mango tree?  Uh huh.  Spotted banana trees and even a cacao tree otherwise known as food of the gods.  Check out those pods:

My favorite, however, has to be the Sunken Garden filled to the brim with brightly colored flowers such as Oriental Lily, Peonies and bleeding hearts.  Just being there took me back about 3 years to Mr. Oz and my wedding day.  We were married in the Sunken Garden on a particularly cold and windy Spring day and I recalled the experience as if it were yesterday.  Such a great place filled with wonderful memories.

Happiness rating = 9.

So, only about half way through my 30 day Happiness photo experiment (I haven't posted on this consecutively, but I think this is day 14) and already clear patterns are coming to light.  After already establishing that the state of being happy is a bit elusive and probably not too sustainable.  I'm much more comfortable with words like content and satisfied to describe my state of being versus full-on happiness.  That said, I find "happy" tends to exist much more when recalling some past event versus a present moment.  Hindsight, it seems, provides a buffer from any previous bad feelings or less than positive thoughts and calls forth mostly the good stuff.  Distance, in the sense of time, does, indeed make the heart grow fonder.  Interestingly, anticipation of a future event also causes unusually high levels of happiness.  The intrigue as to what will happen gets those endorphins pumping too.  

Conclusion: past and future serve as happiness catalysts.  What then of the here and now?  I am less happy in the present, or so it would seem.  Do I just not really know how good things are until they have passed me by?  This assumes, of course, that things really are good and I have no real reason or suspicion to doubt otherwise.  Pulling slightly back from me as an individual, are we as humans constantly reminiscing and pining for those glory days that somehow appear even better in the warm glow of nostalgia?  And likewise, is it just human nature to keep yearning for that ever-elusive "grass is always greener" ideal hiding just around the corner?  How can we be more mindful of what we have in the present moment?  Unlocking this may just be the key to sustainable happiness.