During Super Bowl weekend a pipe froze and busted due to the extended freeze in Dallas--so please accept my apologies for being out of touch. The flood destroyed my computer, my office, SOHP merchandise, and too many things to mention. It's taken some time, but I'm finally up and running with a new respect for anyone who willingly remodels their home while living in it. And while it was a significant inconvenience, for the most part I kept it in perspective. Compared to the many who've lost virtually everything due to tornadoes and earthquakes, this was just an annoyance.

Of course, when you step so far away from your daily life it's God's way of giving you time to ponder and reflect. For me, this was a time to reevaluate my Secret Society of Happy People role and goals. For more than a decade I've actively promoted the Society and happiness. It's been an opportunity to meet so many wonderful and happy people. But, eventually all things change and I've decided it's time for me to move on to other challenges -- primarily writing (I'm working on a couple of fiction books) and starting a Facebook page for the politically minded: Moderates In America.

Tonight I did my final official duty of sending out our Happiest Person Medals from our Hunt for the Happiest Person Contest held during Hunt of Happiness Week. If your nominee was selected you've received an email.

By the end of the month the Society's home page will only feature Happiness Happens Month. At this point it seems to have a life of its own. The Facebook Page will also stay intact and occasionally I'll check in there.

If you'd like to stay in touch with me, please like my author Facebook Page and / or follow me on Twitter (if you're a person I follow back -- and don't forget to put me in one of your lists).

Thanks to you and many others who've make the Society what it is, it's been more than a decade of celebrating happiness.

With love, light, and abundant happiness,

Pamela Gail Johnson

Founder

Secret Society of Happy People

Happiness is as simple as it is complicated. It's a moment that can show up in the midst of our most chaotic, sad, or overwhelming times. Yet, for some even after creating a life around what they believed would make them happy, happiness is elusive. It's true that sometimes finding happiness is as simple as realizing we aren't giving recognition to the happiness we experience ~ therefore, the argument is often made that being happy is purely a matter of choice. But when we're in the middle of those life changing soul lesson moments that feel harsh and even unending, it's understandable when people are happy challenged.

The one thing I know about happiness is that our most happy nostalgic memories are the ones we get from our relationships. It's not the hours we put in at work. It's not the awards we won. It's not how clean we kept our house. It's the meaningful time we spent with the people we like and love ~ our family, our friends, the new friends we make when taking a class, volunteering, or traveling, and even our pets. The truth is that our memories of the fights, the disagreements or the annoying habits of those we love, pales in comparison to the good times.

It's not that we don't need to have goals, work, and do things of interest. In fact, there's no better relationship building moment than when we accomplish something with a group of people ~ sports teams, theater projects, bands, community projects, and even work projects.

As we end our 10th Annual Hunt for Happiness Week if you want to add a little happiness in your life this year, make an extra effort to do something with the people you love. It doesn't have to be something big, or grand, it might be something simple, or even silly.

The one thing I know about happiness, is that the more people you have in your life that you love and love you back, the more laughs you have, the more fun you have, the more happiness you'll have.

Happy Hunting,

Pamela Gail Johnson

It's that time of year that the holiday hoopla is over, the resolutions are getting harder to keep, the weather isn't exactly happy, the holiday bills are arriving, we're thinking we need to get our tax stuff ready, your football team didn't make it to the playoffs, and it seems like Spring will never arrive. And although happiness hasn't disappeared, it may require us to put a little effort into noticing it. Actually, January 17, 2011 has been deemed the Saddest Day of the year, by Dan Kruger, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of Michigan.

To help us do that we're celebrating the 10th Annual Hunt for Happiness Week. We're actually hunting for the Happiest Person ~ make a nomination, there are Happy I-Spy Coupons you can pass out when you see someone having a happy moment, do a 31 Types of Happiness Word Search, plus there are lots of activities on our website to help everyone of any age hunt for and find some happiness.

Also, if you want to increase happiness at work consider getting our Happiness Happens @ Work Kit that includes almost everything needed ~ you'll have to provide the happiness coordinator ~ to help your office find the happy for the entire year.

Hunt for happiness at home, at work, and when you're just doing errands. Imagine the happiness you'd give someone by handing them an I-Spy Happiness Coupon.

Happy Hunting!!!