UN International Day of Happiness

While skimming the wacky bizarre calendar to satisfy my curiosity and search for topic ideas, I sometimes stumble onto information new to me. Coming up is International Be Happy Day, an actual global holiday sanctioned by the United Nations. Each year the UN selects a theme for this special day on March 20.

With so much affecting the globe, it seems an insurmountable task to promote happiness worldwide. But it isn’t impossible. It starts with one - one individual taking personal responsibility for that emotion - and realizing it is easy to share.

Situations can be overwhelming, circumstances dire, but with the flip of a focus switch some ordeals can take a backseat to smiles and fun if just for a while. It is not uncommon to feel guilty for carrying on when others in the world are suffering, but we don’t want to put aside our traditions that include family, friends and neighbors. While we carry on, we can search for ways to draw attention to and contribute to solutions for world-wide issues. Donations to charitable groups help them serve hurting populations. It may seem like a small contribution, but every bit helps.

It is said that music is made by the spaces between the notes. I recently heard a guest on a radio talk show suggest that the making of history is like that. Sure, major historical events like hurricanes and tsunamis, wars and pandemics, make it into the history books. But so will records of the daily lives of the world’s peoples. There are still weddings performed, babies born, birthdays and anniversaries celebrated, gardens planted and harvested and inventions patented around the world during and between horrific upheavals. Culture is also part of history.

“Keep Calm, Stay Wise, Be Kind.” That's the UN theme for March 20, 2022. It certainly can’t hurt.