When do you think you'll be the happiest?

Is it after that promotion you always wanted? That next raise? Maybe after you get your dream car. Or when you can finally ship the kids off to school?

The best advice I've ever gotten is finding a little bit of happiness in every day. Find some comfort in the difficulty of today, knowing it will never last, but you will.

Growing up, I thought to be happy I had to achieve all of my dreams and goals. That after I get the thing I so desired, it will feel it rushing through me like finally jumping off of that terrifying cliff into the lake below where my friends are waiting for me. Everybody seemed to have it figured out and I was left behind to follow their tracks in the dirt.

I wanted a big house. Massive. My favorite question I used to ask was "If you had all the money in the world, what kind of house would you have?" Just so I could talk about it.

I got some interesting answers. Anything from a cabin in the woods where they could be alone to mansions with basketball courts were mentioned with starry eyes.

I wanted to build one of those ridiculous mansions with themed rooms that I could rent out for Halloween. Gatsby without the death and pining for unrequited love, although then he would just be a rich man throwing parties.

Now as I've gotten older, my tastes have changed of course. A decent plot of land in a smaller town with good people sounds...nice.

A place with all four seasons. I love Idaho for that simple fact. 

Summer will always have its place. Days spent smelling like chlorine and sunscreen, getting yelled at by lifeguards to walk as we couldn't contain ourselves. Watermelon, barbecues, and cold beer with friends and family smiling and making the effort to spend time together.

Fall is my dad's favorite season. He loves when the weather cools and he can go on his walks with my mother in the evenings and watch the colors change. 

He hates raking leaves, yet every time I see him at this time of the year, he's always in the yard raking away. I look forward to the smell of the damp leaves and candles in jack-o-lanterns. Its the time you start using the covers on your bed, and it gets harder and harder to leave the warmth.

I named my company Fall Crown because I wanted to evoke that feeling of staying in with a book and staying warm under those covers with a cup of coffee or cocoa in hand. Our books are meant to be royalty in that regard. As hard to escape as the covers when its so warm and inviting. 

Winter is the time for family. For closeness. Holidays are abundant and people want to be kept close. My mother makes a mean hot buttered rum I think about from time to time. 

I think of ski lodges and hot springs while the snowfall makes everything so quiet. Oddly enough that's when I love to take walks, all bundled up and seeing my breath drift like clouds.

Then comes spring, and the promise of warmth. Rain crushes our dreams of short sleeves sometimes, but who doesn't love warm rain?

I watched a girl dance in the warm rain once. I knew her for years. She'd taught me so much, and so little at the same time.

Now of course there are parts of all of those seasons that are not the best. It is so easy to cling to the negative. I love to wallow in the pit of despair sometimes too. I get it.

But there is so little time for such things. A pressure is always there to dislike your situation and "move up". Yet whenever you get what you want, it is never quite what you expect. Sometimes better, sometimes worse. Get after it, but when you have it, remind yourself why you wanted it in the first place. To be happy.

Have a great summer

D.B.Sinclair