August Happiness Challenge -- Day 25

Look at my happy kitty

Thursday's happiness: He's fine. Today I had lunch with one of the coworkers who was let go on June 30. I'm happy to report he's happy.

Of the three who were laid off, he's the one I worried about the most. He'd been with the agency for (gulp!) 22 years, which is an amazingly long time to go without interviewing. He has a speech impediment -- a stutter -- and that makes it uncomfortable to meet new people in high stress situations.

He doesn't yet have a job, but he seems happy and peaceful. His daughter -- who just began her senior year in high school -- had surgery for a sports injury in the spring and he was glad to be home with her this summer to oversee her rehab. He's ridden his bike every day and lost a little weight.

His family has money. His father and brothers are all in "the family business," a chain of high-profile car dealerships around Chicagoland. I know from previous conversations that he wanted to go his own way, defy expectations and become an art director. However, now that he's in his mid-50s, with a daughter ready to enter college, it might be time to see if there isn't anything he can do for the family firm. He's also looking at freelance work.

I realized today he's going to be OK. Not everyone in his situation is. It makes me happy.

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.

If you want to play along, just come back here (meaning to this blog, not this individual post) each day in August, looking for the happy cat. Every day I will try to have a post with the headline: 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.