Happiness Is...How I Got Started

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This guy! Charlie Brown and Peanuts have always been a favorite of mine, since I was a little girl. In 1962 Charles Schultz wrote "Happiness is a Warm Puppy," a collection of Happiness Is quotes from an earlier Peanuts comic strip. He didn't think he could come up with enough quotes, but found out soon enough there were plenty of reasons to be happy. The idea took off. When I was in the 5th grade, Peanuts comics were still going strong, and "Happiness Is..." could be seen everywhere.

I wrote a poem called Happiness Is that year. I don't remember anything about it, except that the last line was, "And at schoolwork, doing your best." That's probably why I was called to the principal's office and got to letter the poem on poster board, and then the poem was displayed in the foyer entrance of the school. The idea that words I wrote made some kind of impact stayed with me, and is ultimately the reason that I write.

Another inspiration came as I was reading one of my favorite book series, Anne of Green Gables.  I was already a mother by this time. The third novel, Anne of the Island, finds Anne and her young adult friends facing life's challenges. Ruby Gillis is a chum who had never given any thought but to her day-to-day pleasures. Unhappily, Ruby is now dying of consumption. Anne pays her a visit and finds Ruby terrified of death. Ruby's "soul clung, in blind helplessness, to the only things she knew and loved". Anne left that meeting a different young woman. I was changed as I read Montgomery's prose of Anne's thoughts: "The little things of life, sweet and excellent in their place, must not be the things lived for; the highest must be sought and followed; the life of heaven must be begun here on earth."

That sentence first inspired me to "the highest" and reinforced my faith. Second, I was consumed with the desire to write in a way that would encourage people to aspire the way I did at that moment. The notion began as a desire and has blossomed over the years into a full-blown passion and calling. I will never forget it. Over time, I have reread and highlighted many such inspirations in Montgomery's work as well as many of the Masters and Christian authors.

So thank you Charlie Brown and Anne Shirley (Charles Schultz and Lucy Maud Montgomery) for inspiring me on this writing journey.