what’s your happy place?

We are all different. Very different. For that I’d like to say, “Thank you, Jesus!”

Different things make each of us tick. Different things make us happy, sad, hurt, inspired…you get the point.

Today I want to talk about your happy place. And mine. For the sake of the conversation, let’s remove our family as our happy place. That should be a given. At least for me and my life, so we are going to the “next place” that we like to go when we need to recharge, rest, smile, laugh, dream. And all those other much needed releases in order to make life more bearable.

Now, let’s remember that happiness is temporal. Fleeting at times. The spouse that makes you happy one moment, can make you angry the next. That child that makes you laugh uncontrollably, can make you cry as well. What about that job that makes you leap when you get a bonus check, but frustrated when you have to work all that overtime?

Happiness is definitely temporal and can’t be compared to Joy that comes from a solid and strong place. Joy is what gets you through those unhappy times. Joy doesn’t shift because your situation does. Unfortunately, happiness does.

Even at that, happiness is wonderful, and the phrase, “my happy place” is very much used in our society – even by me. I don’t see anything wrong with finding those “things” that make us smile, happy or peaceful. After all, we are living creatures with a mind, will and emotions.

What is your happy place? How did you find it? How does it make you feel (other than happy)?

Over the years, I’ve had many different “happy places” and they have been great in each season of my life. Now, in this season, I have a wonderful, fun and oddly entertaining happy place – and I know most people just don’t understand it. I get it. It’s not common or normal (I’ve never been either), but when people ask me to explain why I’m so obsessed, I think they leave pretty fascinated and have a new-found appreciation for what makes me smile and beam!

So, what is my happy place? Well, my chickens, of course. Weird, I know, but oh how they have become a happy place for me. Let me explain to you why.

First…I love animals. Always have. My dad will tell you that I’ve been an animal lover since my first birthday when he gave me a Snoopy stuffed animal that made my “eyes pop out of my head” when I opened the gift and saw him.

See. After 41 years, I’m still addicted to furry and feathery creatures. I love animals. I love being a caretaker. I talk to animals. They talk to me. Growing up, every time we’d get an animal, they always ended up “mine.” I’d be responsible for everything and I took my job seriously. Feeding. Walking. Cleaning up after them. They slept in my room with me. They followed me around everywhere. I just bond well with animals.

Some find this odd. I find it comforting. I’m like the animal whisperer and I’m proud of it.

I grew up always having animals in the house. Dogs, cats, rabbits, fish, even a mouse once.  When I turned 18, my parents surprised me with a 9 month old pot-bellied pig that needed to be rehomed.  I’ve been “rescuing” animals ever since.

I had my pot-bellied pig, Missy, for over 20 years. She lived to be 21  years and 29 days. It was so fun having a “farm animal” and at the same time, a lot of work and responsibility. But when I sign up for something, I keep my word until the end. And I did. My daily schedule, starting at 18 years of age until I was 38 1/2, revolved around Missy (a separate post for that story). Pot-bellied pigs need attention as a child needs attention. All the time. Needless to say – thanks to Missy, I learned how to be a dedicated and disciplined pet owner.

Fast forward to October 2014 when we moved to 5 acres in a rural-residential area. We wanted to get chickens. Well, maybe “I” wanted chickens, but the family was all on board with it! Fresh eggs! That’s the main reason I had for having chickens, because I technically knew nothing about this feathery creature. But, I knew about health and loved being sustainable, so having our own chickens was a great place to start on our new journey of living sustainable outside of the suburbs!

We got our first chicken in July 2016, Scout the rooster. We “rescued” him from a friend’s flock where he had been picked on (by the hens) for over 3 years. My friends drove him up from Texas and he was the one who started our flock. Shortly after, we acquired 6 hens from my son’s school (they have a Sustainability class, gardens and chickens!) And so the journey began.

My husband designed and built a coop and we put up a fence for a run and we were now chicken owners. Nothing more. Nothing less. This is where it started getting interesting. And entertaining.

Since this was all new to us, we’d take our camping chairs out to the coop and run area and let the chickens out to “free range” and we’d sit and talk, but always just ended up watching and laughing at the chickens. How they acted, their mannerisms, their sounds.

I was hooked. I laughed. Laughed hard. Tears sometimes accompanied all the laughter from watching the chickens doing their thing. How could they be so entertaining almost every second of the day? Never a dull moment when we were out with them.

Then one day I was talking on the phone with Charley and I was telling him that I felt like I needed something “more”. Both kids were getting older, one was in school, the other homeschooled, we were no longer serving at the church we attended before we moved and I wanted to “do” something. I like to be busy. I can’t sit around all day doing nothing. I didn’t want to go get a job outside the home, but I wanted something that would keep me busy.

I am not afraid of work. I embrace work, movement, learning and growing. We had been married for over 16 years at the time of our conversation and I had taken care of kids for pretty much all of those 16 years. And this is when he said something that pushed me a bit over the edge. He said, “You need to find something to do that makes you happy!”

After a little thought, back and forth scenarios, it finally clicked. I knew what made me happy. My chickens. Completely. Just like all the other animals I had been a “master” to over the course of my lifetime. They gave my day more purpose. They got me out of the house and in the fresh air. They require work – so I got plenty of exercise and they gave me so much happiness, laughter, and down time. This is why you’ll always here me say, “My chickens…my happy place.”

We got to work on making this “happy place” a better place for my ladies and roos. I started researching chickens like it was going out of style. Absolutely fascinating creatures! Then we started doing. Now, this required a lot of work on my husband’s part – and I know it wasn’t always what he wanted to do (his happy place is driving his Jeep in the mountains) – but he never let me down. We spruced up the coop and run and took in a lot of chickens that needed to be rehomed. I loved every minute of this process. Accepting the request from someone to take their chickens – knowing I could give them a good life, learning about the new girl, and doing what I could to bring her back to a healthy and happy state. Now, that’s fulfilling. At the time of this writing, we have a flock of 21 chickens:  3 roosters and 18 hens. Unfortunately, we have lost 4 in the past year, but we still have an amazing flock of 21 beauties! We started with 1 rooster and 6 girls – and in the matter of a year and a half – we have us a full coop!

So, after all this mumbo-jumbo to get to my “happy place” speech- why are they such a wonderful place for me? I mean, really? Chickens?

Aside from getting me outside, giving me exercise and caring for something living – they are calming to me. There’s something about chilling out on our property watching our 21 chickens running around, raking, taking dust baths, pecking at the ground, chasing each other and talking the entire time.

It’s soothing to me to listen to them chatter as they go about their day. Just like listening to my pug snore would help me sleep, listening to the flock is peaceful. Now, Charley’s snoring annoyed me, but Jerry’s snoring (my precious pug for 12 years) was like a sweet lullaby. I’d so much rather listen to the chattering of chickens and crowing of the roosters than a busy street of cars, honking and sirens.

I also love being creative. I have always loved DIY projects and using my imagination. Something I get from both of my parents. After almost 16 years of putting a lot of my hobbies and DIY creativity on the back-burner, I was able to jump back into being “me”.  So, getting to create a habitat for my chickens has been a way to use one of my creative outlets. I always have new ideas and plans to make our chicken’s life even more crazy-awesome! Pallets, fallen trees, old tires – oh my goodness – DIY heaven!

Then in September 2016, I ended up in the hospital for 3 days with pancolitis and sepsis. Not a fun time and very eye opening. But, I came home, recovered and continued on with life. Unfortunately, it seemed like I had some “after-shocks” from this incident and along with many health issues that arose, I started having panic attacks. For no reason. I had never in my entire life experienced anything like this. They are awful. Once one starts – it is hard to stop. When they first started, I would get them a couple times a week. A little scary for this girl who is head strong, but gentle.

Yet, I found that going down to the coop helped me a lot. The fresh air. Getting my hands dirty. Working. Daydream designing. Watching my chickens live their life. I’d just sit with them and they’d walk around me, squawking, cackling…talking. Some get a sweet purr when they are around and others will literally have a conversation with you. You chatter at them, they chatter back at you. You change your pitch. They change theirs. To me, this was always so peaceful and comforting. I even have a few that like to jump on my lap, sit with me, have me hold them and I have two girls who run to me when I say, “come see mama!” They took my mind off whatever it was that was trying to make me spiral into a panic attack.

Hanging out with the flock brought a smile to my face and happiness to my soul. How can you ignore that? I know it’s hard for people to understand, but they helped me through such a hard season in my life. They never judged me or were mad at me, even when I didn’t have it all together. Well, Scout the rooster has anger issues and I’ve been spurred by him 3 times – but he’s a great rooster so he gets to stay! Never the less – I found my “happy place” down at my coop and I love every minute I spend down there.

Whether it’s scooping up all that chicken crap, filling food and water dishes, shoveling sand, installing blinds or messing with the security cameras we have down there (haha-yes, I take it all very seriously) – it brings refreshment in a very practical and natural way. No, it’s not my solid foundation that gives me my Joy, but the happiness they bring is received with open arms.

In life, we all have those things that make us happy. It could be exercise, work, volunteering, teaching, cleaning, creating, journaling – just to name a few. In fact, I do some of the above, but if someone asks me where my happy place is, I would have to say, “My chickens.” For some very surface reasons and some very personal reasons. But, it’s my happy place and that’s what matters.

So, whatever your “happy place” is, enjoy it. Embrace it. Value it. There’s nothing wrong with allowing things the opportunity to make you smile. To give your soul rest. To fill your mouth with giggles (something our daughter always said when she was little).

Now, if you are ever wondering why I talk so much about and post photos of the chickens, you’ll get it. When you hear me say how leaving the chickens for a year might be one of the hardest things about our trip – you’ll understand why. If you wonder why in the world I have security cameras, a monitor, speakers and microphone at the coop – you may think I’m a little weird, but it will make sense! When we’re on the road, I will still get to see my flock, hear them and I can even talk to them – all from the convenience of my phone. I mean, I asked my husband if we could somehow bring our chickens and he, without hesitation, said, “Ummmm, no!”, so this was the alternative!

How amazing is technology? And how amazing is my husband to go along with all of this over-the-top hoopla just so I can still be a mama to my chickens while we are gone?! He’s off-the-charts uh-mazing if you ask this wife. And while I’m gone, I will be with the 3 most important people in my life, along with our pug, and since they are undeniably my obvious “happy place”, then I think this next year is going to epic.

I hope you have found your “happy place” – and if you haven’t, it’s about time you did. Don’t worry about people’s opinions about it either. That takes away the purpose of a place that can make you smile internally. Find that place. Cherish it. Grow it. And be proud of it! Your life will thank you for it!