happiness Archives - Miranda van den Heuvel

Vacation

Miranda2022-11-12T23:51:47+02:00September 6th, 2022|

Vacation Days of sleeping in and doing nothing Days of getting up early to hike, mountainbike or visit sights Days of beach and watching your kids have fun Days of endless reading Days of trying out restaurants Days of staying in and cooking pasta Days of taking a boat onto the sea Days of squabbling with your teenagers Days of making memories Days of enjoying being away A day of looking forward to go home *** Last day on gorgeous Madeira. I for sure will be back. Just so I can explore this bea [...]

Laugh

Miranda2022-11-12T23:52:57+02:00August 17th, 2022|

In the basement there is a swing. It has a red seat and blue ropes hanging from the ceiling, right next to and along the basement staircase. The basement also houses my father's workshop. Every day after dinner, he will go down and spend time fixing some device or other. He puts on some music from the 70ies on a cassette tape, like Massachusetts from the Bee Gees, and I can hear his toiling noises adding an interesting background to the song. I am swinging. The simple joy of moving back and for [...]

What is it that makes you worthy to be loved?

Miranda2022-05-31T13:47:20+02:00February 19th, 2021|

When I ask people "What do you love about yourself?" or "What is it that makes you worthy to be loved?" I usually get either of two reactions: stunned silence, followed by by a look that says 'what do you mean?', followed by an uttered 'uh', followed by hesitation, followed by all sorts of emotions (sometimes accompanied by tears) people tell me about something they DO or have achieved or accomplished. They tell me about some 'thing' they are 'good at' or 'proud of'. Of course these are valid an [...]

Can money buy happiness?

Miranda2022-06-01T11:04:17+02:00May 8th, 2020|

Remember when you were a kid and you couldn't wait for school to start? Or summer vacation? Or your birthday? Or Christmas Day? You felt butterflies in your stomach. You couldn't sleep at night. You talked about it all the time. You kept asking your parents how many more nights there were to sleep before it was finally there. All this anticipation is half the fun as they say, although you didn't understand it back then of course! And even as adults, we don't often consider anticipation as half [...]