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Ive also started a little women's community [email protected] that is doing ok which makes me smile. A small daily happiness is my little treat food like a small bar of chocolate with a cup of tea.

Learn to love and let curiosity make you happy. That is the most important thing I can teach anyone. I have been physically disabled and in near total social isolation for 11 years. If I am cut off from this place Lemmy, I can still keep my mind occupied and engaged using my curiosity while only marginally less healthy for lack of interactions with others. If I were in prison, I would still have my curiosity. Even in solitary I can find ways to stay engaged with myself as a last measure. If I were confined like Hawking was with ALS, I would still be a curious explorer. My curiosity is how I avoid focusing on what I have lost or what I am unable to do. When I feel hurt I jump into a curious project. There are interesting curiosities in everything around us. None of us understands all of the fundamentals about the things that surround us in daily life. So find some junk and take it apart until you figure it out. When most people are board, like sitting around at a mall, I am people watching and trying to guess what motivates someone, their story, and where they are going. Or I can explore my entire science fiction universe I call Parsec 7 and think about what is happening with Bibble and other characters in a distant future living in an O'Neill cylinder around Alsafi in the next age of technology once biology is mastered as an engineering discipline.

You see, curiosity is universally grounding. If you are still alive with a conscious mind, curiosity is universally available to you as a refuge, so embrace it.

Oh, lots of things.

But recently, my chickens.

The rooster is dumb as a brick, but endearing anyway. When he's in the mood, and gets in my lap to cuddle, and all the stress melts out of him while I pet him, that's gold right there.

And the pet hen? She flicks her little tail on the arm of the couch and nestles in as close as she can to my side, and she does that sweet trill of contentment. How can that not bring peace and happiness?

Even the volunteer hen, when she comes ruuuuuuning up from her little spot under a tree when one of us goes out, and starts her little high pitched buuuk-buk-buk because she knows we're suckers and always bring treats, that never fails to make me smile.

• Cooking for friends and family and seeing the enjoy the food
• sunny days
• having had a good night sleep and feeling a super human because of it
• being in nature
• eating a juicy, tangy, sweet peach, especially directly from the tree

Playing the guitar. I took up electric guitar during the quarantine, and was getting pretty good, then about a year ago i started fingerpicking on a nice acoustic that i got at auction for only $102, and I've become fairly obssessed. I've become good enough that i can sit out on the front porch and entertain myself by running through my growing repertoire of songs, and composing new songs and arrangements. What has surprised me the most wasn't the personal sense of accomplishment, it was how much it has greatly improved my mood and mental health.

• Doing things for the humans I love
• Learning new thing
• Designing things
• Playing video games with my friends
• Making art and music
• Seeing other like-minded people come together to fight for what we believe in

Cheese.