Introducing Augie and The August Happiness Challenge 2013

Meet Augie, The August Happiness Challenge Cat

The Challenge is really very simple: "Each day in August you are to post about something that makes *you* happy. Pretty simple. And, it doesn't even have to be every day if you don't want it to be. It's a great way to remind ourselves that there are positive things going on in our lives, our communities, and the world."

Since this year I long for contentment, I have chosen this charming gent as my Happiness icon. I love that look of satisfaction on his face. I call him Augie. I discovered him while clicking through the Life Magazine photo archives looking for something else, and fell in love.

Anyway, if you want to play along, just come back here (meaning to this blog, not this individual post) each day in August, looking for Augie. Every day I will try to have a post with the headling: August Happiness Challenge: Day [X]. Leave a comment and then post your own daily happiness, with August Happiness Challenge in the title to make it easy to find.

Of course you're encouraged to visit the other Happiness participants, but it's not mandatory. And if I miss a day because I'm away from the computer (which I may be at least one weekend), feel free to post on your own and visit other bloggers without me.

Augie and I aren't much for rules. The motivation behind the August Happiness Challenge is simply to give us each a moment to reflect on the positive things in our lives.

So simply think of it as a pleasant little blogging prompt, not a challenge to be conquered. That's the way I've been doing it every year -- without agita -- since 2007. And that's the way I'm going to continue. Because it makes me happy.