A cloudy day or a little sunshine have as great an influence on many constitutions as the most recent blessings or misfortunes.

Joseph Addison

A day without sunshine is like, you know, night.
Steve Martin

A good laugh is sunshine in the house.
William Makepeace Thackeray

A light wind swept over the corn, and all nature laughed in the sunshine.
Anne Bronte

Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone, It’s not warm when she’s away, Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone, And she’s always gone too long, Anytime she goes away.
Bill Withers

An easily accessible and transparent database of contract information will bring sunshine into the confusing and sometimes shadowy practice of government contracting.
Tom Coburn

Anyone’s life truly lived consists of work, sunshine, exercise, soap, plenty of fresh air and a happy contented spirit.
Lillie Langtry

Arizona is gorgeous. The sunshine in Arizona is gorgeous red.
Cecilia Bartoli

But friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life, and thanks to a benevolent arrangement the greater part of life is sunshine.
Thomas Jefferson

Change, like sunshine, can be a friend or a foe, a blessing or a curse, a dawn or a dusk.
William Arthur Ward

Every player should be accorded the privilege of at least one season with the Chicago Cubs. That’s baseball as it should be played - in God’s own sunshine. And that’s really living.
Alvin Dark

Sunshine in a Man - Bill Withers

Fancy your having no sunshine in London yesterday! Here it was glorious, like full summer, and I sat up with the window wide open, listening to the discourse of two amorous thrushes.
Marie Corelli

My sister sent me these photos this morning and it started my week off right.

Shot in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania:

Whether metaphorically or literally, singing is a beautiful way of expressing yourself. So let your heart sing out or sing your favorite song proudly. Let these quotes inspire you to sing today. Sing like you just don’t care.

My heart is like a singing bird.
Christina Rossetti

I spent many years laughing at Harry Secombe’s singing until somebody told me that it wasn’t a joke.
Spike Milligan

Gardens are not made by singing ‘Oh, how beautiful,’ and sitting in the shade.
Rudyard Kipling

Love, I find, is like singing. Everybody can do enough to satisfy themselves, though it may not impress the neighbors as being very much.
Zora Neale Hurston

My heart is singing for joy this morning! A miracle has happened! The light of understanding has shone upon my little pupil’s mind, and behold, all things are changed!
Anne Sullivan

No; we have been as usual asking the wrong question. It does not matter a hoot what the mockingbird on the chimney is singing. The real and proper question is: Why is it beautiful?
Bertrand Russell

Nothing I have done professionally will top the feeling I got when singing with John Farnham at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.
Olivia Newton-John

Singing is the love of my life, but I was ready to give it all up because I couldn’t handle people talking about how fat I was.
Stevie Nicks

Stevie Nicks

Read more: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/singing_2.html#ixzz1nmobtYjx

Boy, if this story doesn’t do something to you, check your pulse. One rescued boy, one lost Teddy bear, one happy reunion:

The child’s father told rescuers that the little boy had been unable to sleep since the disaster and desperately missed his toy.

He wrote to islanders who had given shelter to him and his son after they were brought ashore when the 950ft long vessel ran aground on the Italian island of Giglio on the night of Jan 13.

Islanders passed the letter to the island’s mayor, Sergio Ortelli, who in turn gave it to rescue divers, who entered the hull on a special mission, finding the cabin where the boy had been staying and retrieving the soft toy – bedraggled but intact.

Bad weather has repeatedly forced divers to suspend their operations in the hull of the crippled ship but they took advantage of a break in the weather earlier this week to go back in – a welcome break from the grim task of looking for bodies.

They found the bear hidden in a tangle of debris – overturned tables, chairs, mattresses and scattered luggage.

Rescuers sent the teddy bear back to the boy, who lives with his father in Verona in northern Italy, having lost his mother some years ago.

Source: The Telegraph

The designers understood the risk. The city waited with baited breath. Would one of the largest living roofs flourish or flop? Well, the answer is somewhere in-between:

It’s been three years since the green roof was planted on Vancouver’s new convention centre.
Is it a success? Is it as good as they promised it would be?
The answer is that some parts are terrific — attractive, quality planting; a beautiful habitat for songbirds and insect life.
But other areas are untidy, scrubby, a bit of a mess; you might even say, an eyesore, and a fair ways from what they could or should be.

Overall, the roof is more a success than a flop, but there’s definitely room for improvement, so the designers should not spend too much time patting themselves on the back. There’s still some refining work to do.
Covering 2.4 hectares (just over six acres), it is still the largest living roof in Canada and the largest non-industrial green roof in North America.
But being 10 storeys above ground, you can’t see much of it from street level, say from outside the Fairmont Pacific Rim at Canada Place.
The roof is mostly visible to people working in adjacent highrise office blocks, such as the Shaw Tower, or living in luxury condos opposite.

Read more at the Vancouver Sun.

Young adults gain knowledge and compassion when part of charitable projects. Their self-confidence increases as well as their sense of community, which has staying power for a lifetime. This story shows how students and communities work together to help needy families, and interestingly, help themselves:

Normally, the day before Thanksgiving on the campus of Gonzaga High School in Washington, D.C is found to be silent. All the students are at home with their families and enjoying the holiday break. However, that is not the case in the basement of the next door church. Faculty, staff and parents have gathered to volunteer their time to feed the needy.

Inside the basement, folks worked diligently all day long making Thanksgiving dinners with all the trimmings to feed about 50 people that are older and live nearby in the lower income dwellings. The meals are a welcome sight and are a blessing to those that receive them from the volunteers from the school. The holidays are not the only time that this charitable work occurs. Volunteers help feed the needy twice a week all year long in a project founded in 2001.

The project, started by Robert Egger is called the Campus Kitchens Project (CKP) and it uses resources that are both available and left over. They use the campus kitchens, the leftover food and volunteer students to help prepare and feed the hungry. The program has taken hold and spread to 28 colleges and 3 high schools.

Read more at Amazing News.

I don’t know about you, but often all it takes to put a smile on my face is a cute animal photo. Check out the full collection here. SO cute. I think the pandas are my favorite:

• 1. Panda cubs cuddling with each other

  

• 2. These dogs surfing

  

• 3. This corgi’s face

  

• 4. A slow loris getting brushed

  

Check out the rest at BuzzFeed!

I read a review yesterday about a fun book entitled Quirkology. As the name insinuates, this book covers strange and interesting human quirks or behaviors that may have bigger implications. This one about smiling seemed to hit home. Fake it till you make it!

The Smiling Solution

And finally, if you want to feel happier, there’s a simple way to do it: Just smile.

In a 1988 study, researchers at the University of Mannheim in Germany had participants look at Far Side cartoon strips (see below) under two conditions: One group of people was asked to hold pencils between their teeth, which forced their mouths into smiles. The others held the pencils with just their lips, which produced a frowning expression. According to the results, the people who’d been forced to smile found the comics far more hilarious than the frowners did.

So if you want to boost your mood, just grin and bear it. Soon enough, your smile will be for real. Science says so.

Quirkology: How We Discover the Big Truths in Small Things is available from Amazon.

We often think our happy is based on our immediate environment as well as our mental state. But did you ever think that the country you live in has a direct impact? Or that countries can be rated according to their happiness?

Here’s the number 1 happiest country:

The Happiest Countries in the World

1. Denmark

> Life Satisfaction Score: 10
> Debt As a Pct. of GDP: 39.5% (14th lowest)
> Employment Score: 8.4 (5th best)
> Self-Reported Health: 7.37 (15th best)
> Employees Working Long Hours: 9.72 (3rd best)
> Disposable Income: 4.0 (18th best)
> Educational Attainment: 7.39 (18th best)
> Life Expectancy: 5.71 (25th best)

Danish residents have consistently rated themselves as the happiest in the world for years in several different studies. This is in some ways surprising, considering the Scandinavian country received only average scores for several metrics that other highly satisfied countries consistently perform well in. For example, Denmark’s 26% income tax as a percent of GDP (the highest in the OECD) has resulted in an average disposable income of $27,080 compared to the OECD average of $36,800. This places Denmark among the bottom half of developed countries for disposable income. The country also ranks in the bottom third life expectancy and just average in self-reported health. However, Danes have one of the strongest senses of friendship and community, with 97% reporting they had someone other than a family member that they could rely on. Danish culture and government policy is one of the most leisure-friendly. Denmark’s citizens spend more than 16 hours each week on leisure time, the second-highest rate in the OECD. The government also subsidizes a full year of maternity leave.

Read more: The Happiest Countries In The World - 24/7 Wall St. http://247wallst.com/2011/06/01/the-happiest-countries-in-the-world/#ixzz1gQwZ4b5k

Celebrities often seem out-of-touch with the world around them, draped in excess and entitlement. But many are making sound contributions to their communities, such as Jon Bon Jovi, who opened up a “pay what you can” restaurant in Red Bank, New Jersey.

Soul Kitchen is a new restaurant opened in Red Bank, New Jersey, by Jon Bon Jovi and his wife, Dorothea. The establishment offers a “pay what you can afford” payment model, and serves wholesome, gourmet food made with fresh ingredients grown in the restaurant’s garden, and other local produce.

On the website, they explain that Soul Kitchen is “A community restaurant with no prices on the menu; customers donate to pay for their meal. If you are unable to donate you may do volunteer work in exchange for your family’s meal.”

But as NJ.com reports, this is no soup kitchen serving up desperation and gruel. “The décor is upscale. Patrons don’t wait in line — they are waited on.”

Read more.