Audrey Hepburn

I love Audrey Hepburn.

I suspect it has something to do with this photo:

Paris + balloons = Love. You already know I love balloons. But Paris? You didn’t know I love Paris did you? … oh, yes, I still need to get to that. Like a secret love affair, I don’t want to share it…

But my love of Audrey Hepburn goes deeper than a single photo. There was, of course, My Fair Lady. But what I love most, what I identify with most, is her sense of spirit and her love of life, as well as her grounded view of beauty and the important things in life. Also, she was a self-proclaimed introvert — just like me. “I don’t want to be alone, I want to be left alone” – a subtle difference that means everything.

She had many profound things to say. But these are my two favourites insights:

And this one – My Joy Bubble for this week:

Wedneday’s Joy Bubble

Wednesday’s Joy Bubble

okay, so maybe it should be Friday’s Joy Bubble…

Wednesday’s Joy Bubble

Wednesday’s Joy Bubble

What is joy? To me, joy is that moment when your heart sings or bursts with happiness. It is a moment of happiness that is brief and pure and essential. For me, happiness is more of a general state of wellbeing while joy is a sharper flare of conscious, concentrated happiness. If happiness is a lake, then joy is the splash a pebble makes before it leaves ripples of pleasure in its wake.  

The trick to happiness is figuring out that the more you learn to recognise moments of joy in your life, the happier you will be. You’ve got to find and treasure as many of those pebbles as you can, you’ve got to revel in the splash of joy that they bring and the ripples of happiness will take care of themselves.

And the real secret is that you are already walking on a bed of pebbles, all you have to do is notice them and pick them up. It begins with you.

My pebbles come in a million different forms – the smell of coffee in the morning, glitter on my carpet, freshly washed linen, vuvuzelas and the sight of hundreds of South African flags flying from car windows.

Wednesday’s Joy Bubble (#4)

I have been away, just got back, over 150 e-mails to read and blogs to catch up on. Also over 300 photos to go through. I think I’ll go back into hiding! But I can’t go without sharing a little joy.

(I’ll be back sometime next week with some serious photo-drunk posts). Till then, be happy my schnnookums!!

Wednesday’s Joy Bubble (#3)

Wednesday’s Joy Bubble (#2)

 

Wednesday’s Joy Bubble