Dreaming of Zinnias in an Orange Cup

...but it's snowing again.  Well, actually the sun has come out and the snow is melting!  Yeah good!

Do you ever think about collective consciousness?  I do.  Years ago before the internet, I would often notice how people seemed to get the same ideas at the same time.  I would decide that I liked sunflowers, and suddenly every store I went in was selling sunflower everything.

With the internet, it's even more obvious.  An example I've experienced recently: I was wandering around the house the other day and I kept becoming aware of little things that made me happy, a smell, the way the light fell through the window, that sort of thing.  So I thought, "oh I should do a blog post that's a list of things that make me happy."  I didn't - yet - but over the next few days I started seeing happy lists everywhere in the blogosphere!

I believe this collective consciousness accounts for some of the supposed copyright infringement we hear about.  Don't get me wrong, there are people who steal other people's ideas, their designs outright, or their style, and that is just wrong wrong wrong.  But I do believe that there are waves of ideas that pass through us and suddenly we're all wanting to work with the same subject matter.   I think there are certain archetypal images that represent what we are feeling as a group culture.  We are all sharing some common experience and so those images come through in our artistic expression.  For example, there is currently a lot of mid-century inspired work - a lot of which looks very similar, but I like it.  During tough times, we tend to look to the past, towards times that seem to us happier, easier.  So today, with the tough economy and all, we're drawn to images of a time that seems, from this vantage point, more like a party.

Anyway, I've decided to do my happy list, so here it is, 20 things that make me happy:

1. walking outside and smelling someone's dryer running
2.  ironing cotton or linen, the smell of the hot iron and the crispness of the fabric
3. 1950s and 60s children's book illustrations (see what I mean?!)
4. letters in the mailbox
5. fresh sheets
6. sunshine
7. the smell of fresh dirt (do you notice I'm very olfactory motivated?)
8. cuddling on the couch and watching Lost with my DH
9. colorful pens and paper
10. toast with raspberry jam
11. the sound of someone whistling in the distance
12. my brothers
13.starting new plants from cuttings
14. borage
15.growing herbs
16. the sound of snow melting and running off the roof
17. rivers
18.violets
19. candles burning
20. baby laughter

There ya have it!  Have the most splendid weekend ever.  And if you want to leave some of your happiness bringers in the comments, that would make me happy:)