Happiness / vs/ Joy

        Happiness /vs/ Joy

   I Met an old acquaintance and after giving each other a big clap on the back, we were both grinning like “the Old Proverbial Cat.”

   After chatting a few minutes “Terrell”, made the comment”, Bill you were always the happy guy in our school years and I always wondered how you kept up that big joyous smile. In fact even in our old age, a few of us have commented about how happy you always were? I recall you used to call it your “Joy Smile”. And of course all of your friends called it your “trouble smile”

   We chatted a while and then parted ways as he went down the street with his “smile of joy and I went across the street with my happy face.

   I had only gone a short way when my inquisitive mind started working. The question that popped out was two-fold, “what is Joy, and what is happiness, and are they different for everyone or are they just different for certain people? Or perhaps they are not different at all”?

   Then I wondered are they built into everyone’s Psyshe ,
and does it change as we get older? Then the question arises---“When are you the happiest? Then Does Happiness and Joy both change as we get older and do they change together?

    Do you have friends or a job, or siblings that make you happy or sad just by having them, as friends?

   Are we HUMANS constantly or even occasionally, changing the written meaning of happiness and joy? If we are not do we at least change some?

   Then a Big question? Would you like someone like you for a friend? Would you like to associate with the person you are RIGHT NOW?

   As we travel down memory lanes do we end up on different paths of happiness or joy, for different reasons?

   One example would be I had a stroke several months ago. While I was in the care center I imagined several times that someone came in and borrowed some of my memory bank and they have not yet brought it back! Then a while later they came back and got part of my vision, so I OWE the people who stood by me a GREAT BIG THANK YOU.

   At this point I am not sure how much of my JOY & HAPPINESS I have regained, but I do know I have regained my sense of humor and I want to thank all of you who have put up with me and my so-called sense of humor.

THANK YOU 

Wally or Wallace or Touche

9 November 2019   

THE EMPTY HOUSE

THE EMPTY HOUSE

   Yes it is an empty house. Well it is empty of people at least. No people have lived here since the last Baldwin left in 2019. The last Baldwin to live there was the Dad. He suffered a stroke in 2019 and moved in to an apartment at the home of his eldest daughter. The Wife, Mother, Grand Mother and Great Grandma (all the same person) all left us in 2012. Then the Big Brother of the family left us in 2013. Our youngest Grand Daughter left just 4 days old in 2008.

   So has the old house been sitting empty? No it sits inside four walls so to speak, but it is not empty. It is full of memories and perhaps even some Spirits on the other side? The Father probably feels the loneliness the most. After all he has lived there longer in that old house than any of the rest of the family has?

   So what does he do in his spare time, when he used to read, write and   study? He does a lot of the same things. He reads, writes, studies. He also likes to visit, reminisce, dream dreams and look for dead people in his computer. Looking for dead people is kind of a family joke that is the answer to MANY Genealogy questions.

   The Dad loves to talk and he does so with anyone who even gives him the slightest open to rattle on about any subject you would desire! He also assure’s the family he DOES talk with he departed wife.

   When he goes around opening closed doors and windows in the old empty house, he does not know what he will find because most of the time he does not know what he is looking for?

   The family says to keep watch when at the old house as you will probably always get a hug.

   Different thoughts and actions burst in on you as you enter the different rooms and Dad’s office. The office is a gold mine for information about the family----and some of it is probably even true?

   Imagine most of the toys that were purchased for the “Seven Littles” have now been passed on and replaced by more and different ones. Of course you may still find a teddy bear, baby doll, or piggy bank  if you search hard enough in the “old junk-room or under the old fold up bed.  

   However I think most “stuff” has been recycled or replaced or just  transferred to new homes.

   The center of attraction in the Old Empty House, and has been for many years is a sliding rocking chair, in the front room. I am sure that since I have left, the old “glider has also or soon will”. I suppose it will be sorted out to some family member, friend, children or that receiver of all things old, the Garbage Truck.

   But when the infamous day comes when the last old; treasure is gone the Earth will still keep turning; Life will still keep moving on. I suppose some things with sentimental value will perhaps pass on to be kept, or perhaps not?