I had the day off work today which always lifts the spirits. Not that my job as a legal secretary in the city is joy-crushing, but I do enjoy having a week-day micro-break. It's great being out and about in the world when everyone else is at work and everything's open, instead of getting a quick, rushed bite on my lunch break.
Books again
I checked out the almost 168-year-old Athenaeum Library in the city for the first time today. Although it has modernised, it retains a cosy old world atmosphere with lots of dark timber bookshelves, an old telephone and a copper sign announcing subscriptions cost "one guinea per annum" (it's a private library). The library also provides free coffee and tea making facilities, which I think is very charming. I'm going to join (even though subscriptions are $65 now). I want to be part of the little book haven in the heart of the city.
Count yer blessings
I discovered a great happiness quote in my wanderings about the blogosphere today.
"Just think how happy you would be if you lost everything you have right now, and then got it back again." ~ Frances Rodman
I read it on Jungle of Life, a blog I have just found. The quote is very similar to another I like by Marcus Aurelius (the Roman emperor), which I read in the wonderful book Enough by John Naish.
"Do not indulge in dreams of having what you have not, but reckon up the chief of the blessings you do possess and thankfully remember how you would crave them if they were not yours."
Two nice reminders to "count your blessings", as the fusty (but wise) admonition goes.And finally...
To my surprise, my private health insurance sprang for more than half of the cost of my two new pairs of glasses. Nice!
Do you belong to a library? Got any favourite happiness quotes to share? Or favourite quotes about anything really!
6 comments:
I read a happiness quote on a sugar sachet once...i still have it somewhere.
'The secret of happiness is to admire without desiring'
I thought that was pretty cool.
Here's my favorite happiness quote, by an unknown author:
The past is history. The future is a mystery and this moment is a gift. That is why this moment is called "the present".
Kudos to you on this blog, I'm enjoying your writing very much!!
Emmy
Hi Emmy. Thanks - I'm glad you're enjoying Gleeful.
That's a good quote - a great reminder to be 'in the moment'.
I have a few quotes I like on similar lines, particularly this Sanskrit proverb
"Yesterday is but a dream, tomorrow only a vision. But today, well lived, makes every yesterday a dream of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well, therefore, to this day, for it is life, the very life of life."
I love that last bit - "the very life of life".
Hi Victoria
Who would have thought you'd find such wisdom on a sugar packet!
It is pretty cool. I like it. Admiring without desire is sadly the antithesis of much of our modern culture of more, more, more.
Another reply to Emmy - I just got a new post from The Jungle of Life (which I mentioned above) and it starts off with your favourite happiness quote!! How's that for a coincidence?!
He attributes it to someone called Bill Keane.
ho ho ho....do I belong to a library ....of course I do! I run it...I love it....I remember being new to Australia at 17 and finding myself a long way from a local library. I joined a subscription library and discovered "naughty" books.... Jacqueline Sussan, the "slave" books and Harold Robbins. Oh I was in heaven!
I haven't been lucky enough to live close to such a wonderful old library as yours though.
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