Looking for the happy

It has been a loooooonnnnnngggggg week in my office at the end of a reasonably long-feeling semester. Yesterday, for the first time since being department chair, and I hope it will be the last, I came home from work feeling like I wanted to burst into tears. (So perhaps the fact that Curious Girl has been bursting into tears at the drop of a hat lately is simply a reflection of my vibe? maybe a contributing factor.)

So I went blog surfing today looking for the happy. And I found some in posts like those, posts that made me smile.

I also found a pay-it-forward project, at Rhymes with Javelin (and Niobe's), a meme that involves bloggers sending happy (in this case, hand-made) gifts out into the world. If you participate as a receiver, you have to make the same offer on your blog, too. Here's the scoop:

I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this Pay It Forward exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.

What do you have to do?
1. Respond here and give your email address so that I can contact you for your address.
2. Place this on your own blog and also send the first 3 people that respond something.

So sign up, and perhaps on a day when you're looking for the happy, the happy will arrive in your mailbox. Well, not the happy, but a happy, anyway.

And if you're looking for other ways to spread the happy, Magpie has a wonderful post today about 13 ways to use charitable giving (or involvement) to make a difference, and the Clutter Museum has had two posts this week about good causes. To Magpie's list, some other interesting charities I've heard of in presentations lately are Agape International (a Christian organization working with orphanages for HIV+ children and children orphaned due to AIDS in India); this wonderful school in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria and another organization helping children in that same area; and a school for children affected by HIV/AIDS in Uganda. I didn't post for World AIDS day, but it's getting on that time of year when the anniversary of my uncle's death rolls around. He served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Nigeria, and he died of AIDS-related complications four years ago. In between, he had a big impact on me--the first relative to really treat me like a grown-up. I miss him.

So it's a good time of year to spread the happy. I could use it, and I bet you could, too.