Everyone Needs a Happy Place

Do you have a happy place? A place you can go to where you feel better just by being there?

I do. I found a happy place, and it was on my doorstep.

Just a few minutes walk from my home, there is a wildlife park. It is a large park with artificial lakes, and I frequently take walks there. Walking in the park has become part of my regular exercise routine. It also helps to clear the mind.

The park is a place where I go to escape the real world.

Back to nature.

I find that early morning is the best time to go, before the rest of the world wakes up. Apart from the occasional dog walker, it often feels like I am the only person in the park. That suits me fine, as there is a silence early in the morning that I haven’t noticed at any other time. That might just be me, but most of the time the only noise comes from the birds.

I’ve also walked through the park at night, early evening, mainly because it is a shortcut to another area of the city where there is a shopping centre. In winter, to say that it is dark at that time would be an understatement. While the lights of the city can be seen in the distance, the park is in total darkness. A torch is an absolute necessity. Despite the darkness, I have never felt unsafe, but it can be a spooky adventure!

But there are other benefits.

Not Happy... With Happy.

I'm currently reading a book called Happy by Derren Brown. I bought it a while back in one of my charity shop book hauls. So far I have found it to be an interesting read, yet I am not happy with it. There is something about Happy, that I am not happy about.

It's the actual book itself, not the contents.  It is a paperback and has 558 pages, but the book is one of those that when you hold it, you have to apply constant pressure to keep the pages that you are reading open and in view. If you get too physical with it, the inevitable end result is that you will get a crease in the spine of the book.  I don't like that with paperbacks. 

The local charity shops are full of second hand paperback books with damaged spines. Surely no one buys a book with the intention of damaging it so you can read it comfortably?

Hardback books are more durable, but paperbacks often get abused in this way, but the real problem is why has it been produced like that? Was there no testing beforehand? There are paperbacks where the pages open smoothly and there are no creases on the spine of the book. So far I have managed to resist the temptation to force it open and damage the spine. I'm on page 103, so 425 more to go (not including the index at the end).  

Will I last the course? Brown seems to think that the stoics had some answers to being happy. Perhaps I need to be more Stoic when reading this hefty tome?

These Boots Are Made For Walking: Including a Secret Book Review

I wrote a couple of posts a while back about finding an almost new pair of walking boots. I needed a new pair and there they were, lying at the side of the road, just waiting for me to find them. Furthermore, I contemplated the mystery of how lucky I had been to just find a decent pair of boots, it was as if I had manifested them to appear out of nothing. I should be so lucky! 

There then followed even more boot related strange events.

A few weeks later, I was shopping in a charity shop, looking for books. I've written a couple of posts about this shop, as it regularly has a five books for a pound offer. When writing about the boots, I had mentioned the Law of Attraction. Now, I can't say I'm a believer in it, but I'm intrigued by strange coincidences that life often throws up. Another one was about to present itself.  

As I was looking through the books on offer, one that caught my attention was The Secret by Rhonda Byrne.  Now, this is a charity shop with a relatively small selection of books on offer, yet here was a copy of the Law of Attraction bestseller that was very popular in the mid 2000s.  I can remember being at a friend's house and the Law of Attraction was being discussed on the Oprah Winfrey show. Oprah was really into it.  So, I had to buy it.

I have now read it. It is an easy read, in part made up of quotes from Law of Attraction practitioners. It's all very positive and destiny in your own hands kind of stuff, but the idea that it is science based I have never found convincing. More spiritual than science. One of the chapters tells us how we are responsible for any medical condition that we may have, which I am tempted to say is hogwash. The overall impression is that to succeed with the Law of Attraction, you have to believe.  Any questioning or deviation in believing will be the reason you fail. It's also quite religious and Christian based. What if you are not religious?

My series of coincidences continued in that same charity shop visit as another book that I picked up that day was Happy, by Derren Brown. Brown is an English entertainer, magician, mentalist, illusionist, and writer.  Happy is his attempt to address the question that we all ask at some point in life, perhaps often, what makes us happy? 

Little did I know when I bought Happy that chapter two would question the Law of Attraction and The Secret.  Needless to say, Brown is sceptical about the claims made in The Secret. I have not read the whole book yet, it is 528 pages long, quite an effort from someone who does not claim to be an expert on the subject, but so far, I have found it to be a good read. So did many others, as it became Sunday Times bestseller. Like The Secret, Happy found a market, although I doubt that Brown spent too much time trying to manifest sales.

But what about those boots?  I do wear them frequently and they are a perfect fit. There is certainly something unusual about them, a magical quality.  I was wearing them the other day on a long trek when I looked down at the ground and there was a £2 coin looking for a new home. I obliged. 

I wonder what the next mysterious coincidence will be?

Charity Shop Book Haul: Another haul

I made another visit to a local charity shop that regularly runs five books for a pound sale.  This is what I bought this time.

1) Pause by Daniella Marchant. How to press pause before life does it for you.  Has a 3.79 rating on Goodreads.

2) The Secret by Rhonda Byrne.  Has a 3.73 rating on Goodreads. I don't really buy all this Law of Attraction stuff, but I thought that given how it cost twenty pence, I would finally read the book. It also has something to do with a pair of boots I found recently.

3) Happy by Derren Brown.  Has a 4.06 rating on Goodreads.  I see a trend here.  Three self-help type books in a row.  Interesting.

4) The Meaning of Sport by Simon Barnes.  Has a 3.78 rating on Goodreads. I like sport, so for 20 pence this was an easy pick.  We will see.

5) A field Full of Butterflies — Memories of a Romany Childhood, by Rosemary Penfold.  Has a 3.67 rating on Goodreads. The lowest Goodreads rating here. Having written a memoir myself, (well, the only book I've written) it is a genre that I like, a real life story. 

So, plenty more to read and all five for a pound.