the disarming nature of happiness

i love winter. i love cold, i love snow. i like winter clothes and hot drinks. pretty much everything about winter is awesome to me. this puts me at odds with many people that i know. people that loathe winter.

i recently sent an email to someone whom i know to hate winter. but i was excited. it had snowed and it was pretty so i was happy. i just wanted to share my excitement with someone else. now here is the interesting thing. she responded not in a complaining, cynical manner but in an exuberant manner about what she was excited about. although she could have read my email and complained about winter, she chose to celebrate in what she enjoyed.

i think this is a general truth about happiness. when someone is happy, it spreads. it makes us happy and looking for the bright light in our day. whether or not we agree with what that person is happy about, the emotion is infectious. so use your happyness to cheer up someone's day.

as aside, the opposite holds true. usually when one starts complaining, the others that he interacts with become negative. don't let yourself go down this road. i do far too often.