I did a Facebook Live this morning and shared how our mini-dachshund Oscar came into our lives and what’s happening in the world of Sharon Michaels author.
This is the 5th birthday of The Prickly Pear Murder!!! Take a look and listen…
I believe happiness is a choice. You can choose to live life surrounded by those things that make you smile or choose to focus on those things that make you frown.
Here’s what I’ve learned about happiness:
* Happy people attract happy people.
* Happy people are hopeful.
* Happy people like and accept themselves.
It’s the beginning of the New Year and many of us write new goals for the coming year. What if you were to develop happier habits? What if you set a few happiness goals?
If happiness is a choice, what are you choosing for the New Year?
Here are three easy, but happy suggestions you can choose to implement during the coming year:
1. Start your morning doing something that makes you happy. You can begin with meditating, affirming the positives, visualizing your happy future, reading a good book, exercising, eating a healthy breakfast, or writing in your gratitude journal.
2. There’s an idea going around Facebook and Pinterest that seems like it would be fun. Start a Happy Memory Jar that you’ll fill with happy memories during the coming year. One woman I know keeps a “Happy Memory” jar on her kitchen counter with a stack of colorful paper next to it and a marker. Throughout the year she’ll jot down a happy incident or memory that occurred during her day – something that made her laugh or smile. Each New Year’s Eve, she opens the jar and spills out the contents. Then with a smile on her face, she unfolds each piece of paper and reads them one by one.
3. Read books that put a pep in your step and a smile on your face.
I love fiction books that take me away and transport me to another time and place. I want to get immersed into characters I can relate to and cheer on to a happy ending. My TBR (To Be Read) is diverse and fun. I set aside at least one-two hours a day for “fun” reading. In 2022 my goal is to read at least 200 new books before the end of the year.
I also make time to hone my professional and personal skills. I reserve quality time to learn more about the craft of writing, marketing, cooking, and taking good care of myself emotionally, spiritually, and physically. I love learning – learning new things makes me happy!
What do you think, are you ready to be happier this year?
Leave us a comment and share some of your ideas and suggestions for being Happy in the New Year.
If happiness really is a choice, what are you choosing for the coming year?
*****
I have two non-fiction reading suggestions to help put a pep in your step and a smile on your face
21 Days to Living Your Dreams: A step-by-step hands-on approach to achieving your goals and living the life of your dreams
Give me 21 days and I’ll have you excitedly developing a workable plan of action for deciding what you want to achieve in life, why you want to achieve it and how to stay on track so you will actually make your goals reality.
I’ll give you 21 proven and real-world steps for creating a more confident and empowered future.
How To Give Yourself The Power To Succeed: Recognizing the things you’re doing that may be keeping you from the things you want
Is self-doubt holding you back?
Isn’t it time to stop doubting and start doing?
Here’s your step-by-step guide!
*If you’re not succeeding the way you know you can
*If you’re not finding peace, balance and happiness in your life
*If you seem to “yank the rug of success” out from under yourself
*If you “botch-up” the good things when things are going well
*If you don’t know how to achieve guilt-free success.
This book will help you recognize the self-sabotaging things you may be doing that keep you from achieving and enjoying the life you want.
If you have a comment or question, please share in the comment section below.
You can check out all my books on Amazon here:
Amazon U.S. Link:https://www.amazon.com/author/sharonmichaels
Amazon Universal Link: https://author.to/AmazonSharonMichaels
I have a personal story about serendipity, Santa Claus, and my dad. I’ll tell it through the eyes of my husband and myself. Everything we are going to share is true – believe me, you cannot make something like this up. (The story is a little long but worth reading and seeing the picture at the end.)
My Husband’s Story:
Sharon’s dad and I loved photography. Our favorite subjects were lighthouses and freighters. Living in Michigan with access to the Great Lakes gave us a tremendous variety of subjects to photograph and places to explore.
On one of our day trips, we drove to a town on Lake Huron, which is home to a picturesque lighthouse. The day was fairly normal. Dad was doing his thing and I was doing mine. We headed in different directions and didn’t see each other for an hour or longer. When my stomach started to rumble I decided to find dad and head out for some lunch.
I asked dad if he was ready for lunch, and he said he was. Then he nodded in the direction of two women with cameras and said that they had asked him if they could photograph him. I asked him what he said. He told me he said, “Sure if you want to waste your film.” That was dad, always a witty remark. We both thought it was unusual that the women would want to photograph him, but we quickly forgot about it and headed off to have lunch.
Sharon’s Story:
Fast forward from the end of my husband’s story maybe two or three years. I was booked to speak to at woman’s conference being held at a local hotel located about two miles from our house. This hotel was nowhere near the lighthouse or Lake Huron. In fact, it was hundreds of miles from the lighthouse.
There were various vendors setting up their tables of products. There were tables of skin care, candles, books, and other products for sale. I was also offering my books, so we had a table too. At the table across from ours a woman began setting up her artwork – they were handmade one of a kind unique holiday decorations.
I didn’t think much about it and decided I’d visit her table as soon I got myself settled. As I looked over again, a Santa Claus figure sitting on a tree stump caught my attention. I thought Santa looked vaguely familiar.
I walked up to the table and stopped in my tracks – I couldn’t do anything but stare at the Santa’s face. It looked just like my dad. Really, just like my dad. The same blue eyes, same glasses, same wrinkles and almost the same beard.
I quickly found my husband and brought him over to her table without telling him why. He stopped in his tracks and said, “That Santa looks just like dad!”
I looked at the artist, who was a woman about my age. I told her how much the Santa resembled my dad and in fact, it was uncanny. Did she live in the area, and could she have known him from somewhere? No, she didn’t live in the area and was here just to participate in the conference.
Then she began to tell us how she created her unique holiday Santa’s. When she saw interesting faces that she thought would make a good looking Santa, she’d ask to take a picture of them. I said, where did you take a picture of this Santa? She said at a lighthouse on Lake Huron. My husband looked surprised and asked, “Do you mean at the East Tawas Lighthouse?”
She nodded yes. The artist said the man and his son-in-law where there to take pictures of lighthouses.
It was my dad! Santa was my dad.
Who would have imagined we would be at that place, at that time, and meet the artist who took a picture of my father and created a look alike Santa Claus?
Needless to say, we bought the Santa immediately. The artist said he would be one-of-a-kind. Every Christmas we brought out Santa Dad to place on our coffee table and every Christmas the two of them would tell the story of Santa Dad.
When dad passed away I stopped bringing out Santa Dad because it made me sad. Last week we found Santa Dad among our decorations and placed him on the coffee table. Looking at dad’s face didn’t make me sad, it made me smile and remember all the happy Christmas moments we shared together.
Here’s to my one-of-a-kind Santa Dad.
If you have a question you’d like to ask, please share in the comment section below.
You can check out all my books on Amazon here:
https://www.amazon.com/author/sharonmichaels
Winner Winner No Turkey Dinner is the third novella in the Pam and Paul Bigelow Cozy Mystery series. Fun small town cozy mystery with a touch of humor, suspense, and sweet later in life romance.
Greed, Guilt and Gatherings =
The perfect scenario for payback and murder.
