Tracking Moments of Joy with Twitter

I do a lot of reading. You'd think I'd be super smart and have a healthy bank of knowledge to draw from on a daily basis. The issue is, while I am endlessly interested in the world around me, my memory is crap. I sometimes wonder if, when I'm 80, I will wonder if I've done anything with those years.

Anyways, I'm reading "The Happiness Project" at the urging of my friend. In the August chapter, author Gretchen Rubin talks about keeping a one-sentence journal of happy highlights from each day—moments that while great, if not recorded, could be easily forgotten. While this isn't a new concept for me (I'd kept "happiness logs" before) what did strike me is that maybe I can use Twitter for these one liners, because what is social media if not inherently self-serving? It gives us our own little soapboxes, you know, like this blog...and saves paper.

So much of what I've been doing, thinking, and reading lately is centered around the yoga idea of letting go, and the be-a-better-human idea of staying calm and giving people the benefit of the doubt, as well as trying to understand where others are coming from. I think this is one of the legacies Grams has left me. So completely falling apart after losing her left me with a somewhat clean slate to try to put myself back together. All of the sadness, anger, and depression that came with watching her leave are things that I wanted to, and actively am working on, letting go. I'm not 100 percent there yet, but then again, no one is perfect, and every day and every experience gives us a fresh chance to learn something and grow.

I think that trying to become more patient and understanding comes with really learning to appreciate all of the little moments of joy that we all come upon each day, if we're paying attention. So that will be the goal of these daily one-line Twitter updates. If I can remember to do them, that is.

@jenminchin - if you feel like keeping me honest.