The Happiest Thing

[MrPixel]

Given @TarnishedPenny 's thread of OMG tragedies in our respective lives, we need a little balance. What was your happiest life event? I'm sure we'll hear about the birth of a child or grandchild, a wedding gone right, your "first time"... things like that. Something especially joyous that you replay in your head when you want to have happy thoughts.

I, for one, can't seem to distill it down to a single event. There has been a lot of happiness in my life, and some level of joy is almost a constant. Even after being with my current partner for 36 years, we have something to laugh at or joke about at nearly every meal. Well, I can put a finger on one thing somewhat recent, but it's way too personal... yes, sex was involved... to put it out here in the open. Maybe one or several of you won't be as reserved.

 

[BelleCanzuto]

I, for one, can't seem to distill it down to a single event.

It's an unfortunate trick of the ways our brains work that happy memories seem so much more ephemeral than sad ones. But I'll share the first thing that came to my mind:

I'd driven with a friend to a Phish show, the summer before my senior year in college. The drive was about three hours. It was blazing hot, and her car didn't have air conditioning. Despite speeding with all the windows down it felt almost like an oven. We get to the venue, find a parking spot, and we're both dreched in sweat. She had a cooler in the back, filled with ice, water, sodas, and a couple of apples and some other snacks.

I took one of the cold apples, a red delicious, and bit into it. It was like the platonic ideal of an apple, sweet, tart, juicy, cold. It was the best bite of food I'd had in my life. That apple so completely sated the need I had at that moment in time, that I don't even have an analogy to describe it.

It's such a small memory, such a small moment, I sometimes wonder why I recall it so vividly.

 

[KeithD]

Two instances spring to mind:

The first was the birth of my first child. I was so bubbling over in the morning after the time it took overnight that, sleepless and adrenaline popping, I went to a shopping mall and walked the stores, buying an expensive painting that was exuberant in color and image (hummingbirds buzzing around a flower). Nothing I'd normally buy, but in the moment, it reflected my joy. It hangs in our guest room, where, even when told its story, no one, including the child and my wife, quite connect with what it represented to me--and still does every time I look at it.

The second, quite divergent, was when I was on stage in the role of Mr. MacAfee in Bye Bye, Birdie, an early 60s musical takeoff on Conway Twitty and Elvis Presley going off to military service and making a big deal of their sendoff. I was singing an over-the-top satirical song about the Ed Sullivan TV show, "Hymn for a Sunday Evening," making getting on the show a trip to highest heaven, when a woman in the audience went into a snorting, hee haw fit of laughter that rolled across the room and even shut the orchestra down in belly laughs. They had to start the song all over again. The effect on me was being so happy to be in--and being involved in having caused--the moment in which the power of live theater came so alive.

 

[lovecraft68]

I could talk about some small things that effect me personally, but I think what comes to mind is years ago I was at work and doing my thing and there was some commotion and yelling and people were running towards the loading dock. I ran over to find out a a man had collapsed and wasn't breathing.

This was back before cell phones and a young woman had to run half the length of the building to get to the office, meanwhile someone thought to pull the fire alarm. But everyone was frozen or panicked and I got down and administered CPR and was still doing it when the ambulance arrived. They got him going again, and he pulled through at the hospital.

I waited a couple of days to go see him, and his family was there and his six year old daughter threw herself at me, crying and thanking me for saving her daddy.

Like I said I've had some personal joy in my life, but its hard to top that one.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Not a bad idea, Mr. P. Thank you.

In my case, it is (was) the first night the Boss and I slept together. No, not our first lovemaking (happy though that was), but rather the first time we ‘shared sleep’, to use Milan Kundera’s phrase on sex vs love. I kept waking up, feeling their warmth in the darkness next to me and knowing my life had just taken a dramatic step for the better. After all these years, I still get a little sniffly inside at the memory.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

One that comes to mind is when the kids were old enough to really be into Christmas for the first time. Really excited, making Daddy presents, you know the drill. My fabulous in-laws have been my parents for nearly 30 years.

Then FIL was rushed to hospital, about the 3rd of December. We worried, but he seemed to recover. Then collapsed again on 20th of December. Lots of tests. On the 22nd evening the bloke is told his dad needs an operation, that's either kill, or survive (for a chap in his mid-80s, not recommended), or die without. He rushes down, obviously. I try to manage expectations of small children.

FIL is supposed.to have op next day, take a couple hours. At lunchtime I'm worried. At four, he finally goes for the op. By eight, I'm back to really worried, but get kids to bed. Carry on worrying. At five to midnight, I get the call that FIL is back on the ward, doing fine, and making bad jokes (which convinced me he was really doing fine).

No phone reception in most of the hospital.

I collapsed in tears of relief, and spent the next day as happy as anything, making Christmas happen, not caring about people shoving or stealing the last of anything out of my trolley, and we got a happy bloke back just before the kids had to be herded to bed.

FIL is still alive and well, though has decided that maybe using a chainsaw when standing on a ladder is a bit beyond him nowadays...

 

[Dearelliot]

Many happy moments, one comes to mind, the day I opened the letter for my daughter saying she was accepted into Med School.
She has a job for life and a good one.

 

[stickygirl]

I could talk about some small things that effect me personally, but I think what comes to mind is years ago I was at work and doing my thing and there was some commotion and yelling and people were running towards the loading dock. I ran over to find out a a man had collapsed and wasn't breathing.

This was back before cell phones and a young woman had to run half the length of the building to get to the office, meanwhile someone thought to pull the fire alarm. But everyone was frozen or panicked and I got down and administered CPR and was still doing it when the ambulance arrived. They got him going again, and he pulled through at the hospital.

I waited a couple of days to go see him, and his family was there and his six year old daughter threw herself at me, crying and thanking me for saving her daddy.

Like I said I've had some personal joy in my life, but its hard to top that one.

That's unusual. My FA trainer tells us that most people don't make it unless there's a defib close at hand. Well done - did you break any ribs?

 

[lovecraft68]

That's unusual. My FA trainer tells us that most people don't make it unless there's a defib close at hand. Well done - did you break any ribs?

My company was less than ten minutes from a fire station, they were there fast thanks to the person who thought to pull the fire alarm. To be honest I have no idea how long he'd been down, one person said it was only a couple minutes before I got there, one person said at least five, but I don't think so. I did break ribs, which I was told during our training-and that was the first year they created an "emergency response team" of a whopping three of us in a company of 90 people, that's common. The running joke afterward was he insisted I was just pounding on his chest and happened to keep him alive in the process. One thing I remember once the adrenalin and holy shit rush was over was I was sweating bullets, CPR is work.

This happened over 25 years ago, these days many companies have defib paddles on hand. That's one of those things I have the mixed feelings of I'm dying to try them so I can yell clear and jolt someone, but never want to. They've also changed the process that supposedly you don't need to breathe into their mouth.

Before this thread I had been thinking about that day several times because of what happened to Damar Hamlin on the Monday Night Football broadcast, that Kid is lucky to be alive.

 

[Comshaw]

As noted the birth of a child is an important event. With our first child my wife and I went through all the Lamaze classes so I could be with her during the birth. Unfortunately my son was a frank breach and they tossed me out when it was decided a c-section was necessary to save him and my wife. I paced the floor outside the operating room until a nurse stepped out with my son and handed him to me with instructions to take him to the nursery. He was bright red, screaming and still covered in mucus, but my heart damned near burst while I carried him to the nursery.

With my daughter our local hospital had a policy that if a woman had a c-section they would not allow her to try a regular birth and would do a c-section automatically. My wife wanted to try for a regular birth so she spent the last 4 months of her pregnancy traveling 140 miles round trip once a week to a hospital that would let her try and would also allow me in the delivery room if a c-section was required.. The company I worked for wouldn't let me take the time off so she did it alone with a two year old kid in tow. Anyway we got to birth time and things went sideways. Contractions had to be induced and after a time they found my daughter was in distress, so they began a c-section. Unfortunately the first one had left so much scar tissue they ran into problems and I again got kicked out of the room. Much like the first time I paced the floor until a nurse brought my daughter out to me. And just like her brother, she was bright red, screaming and covered in mucus and one of the most beautiful sights I had ever laid eyes on.

Comshaw

 

[ElectricBlue]

That perfect little tiny hand of a new born child, so small, yet everything perfectly formed, in miniature. And then the first time that child grips your little finger!

And now that kid is about to do it all for himself, the fathering thing, and I'm going to be a grandfather. I'm sure the babe will have the same perfect tiny little hands.

 

[stickygirl]

My company was less than ten minutes from a fire station, they were there fast thanks to the person who thought to pull the fire alarm. To be honest I have no idea how long he'd been down, one person said it was only a couple minutes before I got there, one person said at least five, but I don't think so. I did break ribs, which I was told during our training-and that was the first year they created an "emergency response team" of a whopping three of us in a company of 90 people, that's common. The running joke afterward was he insisted I was just pounding on his chest and happened to keep him alive in the process. One thing I remember once the adrenalin and holy shit rush was over was I was sweating bullets, CPR is work.

This happened over 25 years ago, these days many companies have defib paddles on hand. That's one of those things I have the mixed feelings of I'm dying to try them so I can yell clear and jolt someone, but never want to. They've also changed the process that supposedly you don't need to breathe into their mouth.

Before this thread I had been thinking about that day several times because of what happened to Damar Hamlin on the Monday Night Football broadcast, that Kid is lucky to be alive.

That's sounds like ER team talk - that you happened to keep him alive as well. The defib kits are super smart and tell you what to do - compressions, breathing, shock. They changed the song you sing as you compress from 'Nelly the Elephant' to 'Staying Alive', compressions to a third of the person's chest size. Breathing - I think they always had those plastic covers. Our trainer said the taste of someone's else's vomit is never forgotten...

As for this happiness thing - I'm struggling. All my happies come with qualifications - I won't bore folks with it, but The Most Satisfactory Thing would fit me better.

 

[Alitaptap]

First, thanks to Mr Pixel for this, and yes, this thread does bring much needed balance, so thank you. And to Tarnished Penny as well for prompting us all to remember, thank you.

As for the happiest thing, like StickyGirl and RubenR, I’ve also found happiness in my work. For a project, I needed to work with a tribe for a month, and gaining access and entering their territory was difficult.

I first met their Chieftain, the first test, then their tribal council of elders, for them to see if I had pure intentions. When they had all decided that it was safe for me to come, they invited me and my team over.

The Chief decided that we were to stay at his house with his family (we were a team of 4), since it would be the safest. We were outsiders so us getting kidnapped or getting our stuff filched was his biggest concern.

We lived with them, slept, ate, bathed the way they did (no bathrooms - makeshift toilets were basically it), and participated in their rituals and councils. I met his people and we shared so much of our lives with each other, by bonfire, solar lamps, or on lazy rainy afternoons.

Before leaving, the Chief’s father pulled me aside. He wore a talisman around his neck, which he had hand-carved out of hard wood. He took it and put it around mine. He said that it would always protect me and that it was given so I would never forget them.

I have that talisman with me until today, and have not forgotten them. To have received such a valuable gift from a people who have so little is one of the happiest and most poignant moments of my life. To know that people like them exist, to have been welcomed into their world, to share a human connection despite our differences, to know that I had given of myself enough for them to give me this, made me so happy. I hold it with so much gratitude and responsibility.

 

[Duleigh]

A few years ago (25 to be precise) I was freshly retired from the military and newly assigned to the gold level of support team for Gateway computers and on day 1 in this esteemed position I was knocking the calls that came in out of the park, I even fixed a modem issue that had stumped other engineers and I sucked at modems (I still hate the damn things) Then as my first shift on the gold team was drawing to a close a sweet old lady called up and said "My motherboard arrived, I'm ready to put it in!"

Gateway computers was big on phone support and we talked customers through a lot of component replacements - hard drives, sound cards, modems, video cards, etc, but a motherboard? we always sent someone to the customers house to replace the motherboard. I looked up this lady's records and the engineer that determined she needed a motherboard failed to schedule someone to go out to her house and fix her computer. I told her that it's a very tough job and I needed to send someone to her house and she said, "I'm tired of waiting, lets do it." She dug out her "Criss cross screwdriver" (phillips screwdriver) and we went to it. I gave her the instructions and she followed them, and when things got confusing I was able to explain exactly what she needed to know.

Two hours later she had her new motherboard in and her computer buttoned up and we fired up her computer and it worked like a champ. She was so excited and she said to me "I'm so happy because this is my 80th birthday!"

Now that made me happy!

 

[dkak001]

So, considering the particular forum, this is probably appropriate.

Was a couple of years in college, spending a weekend with my GF at her family's home. We went for a walk, she brought a blanket. It was a sunny day, not too warm not too cold. We started to fool around, and she started to play with my butt. I'm thinking, OK where is this coming from? Not complaining one bit, because I very much had thing for stuff back there. I was very surprised that this beautiful young lady would take an interest in probing around in me. She jerked me off while probing me and I absolutely exploded.

I was confused, trying to figure out how she knew I liked this. It just didn't seem possible someone I'd known for only such short while could have guessed. It was simply amazing. Still laying on the blankets, she asked if I liked it. I admitted I did very much. As we discussed things, it turns out she didn't have a clue beforehand that I liked it. She initiated because she had REALLY REALLY wanted try it. Not even knowing the word fetish, she had a huge fetish for it. She just went for it.

As they say, the rest is history. Yes, the births of our children are happy memories. Our wedding is up there as a good memory also. As is buying our first house and remodeling it together. Buying our our second house, and eventually building our dream home.

The happiest memory is still that she had the nerve to try out her fetish on me, only to discover it was my fetish also. That comfortably sunny day, with the light breeze blowing, laying half naked in the tall grass, we discovered each other.

 

[SimonDoom]

I can't think of just one, but I can think of a few where "happy" reached the level of "sublime."

The first that comes to mind is holding my children right after they were born. Those were magical moments. Holding my daughter, who was my first, and who was a beautiful baby, swaddled in blankets, moments after she was born, comes to mind in particular.

I love hiking in the mountains, and there was one hike in particular where I climbed by myself to the top of a 13,000+ mountain in Colorado, miles away from any other humans, and the mountainous landscape in every direction was so mind-blowingly sublime, it was unbelievable. I've probably never been so alone in my life as I was in that moment, and it felt wonderful.

There are a few sexual encounters I've had that were truly, purely "happy" moments. I won't go into details.

 

[nice90sguy]

Holding my newborn son for the first time.