We, as Americans, are born with the belief that ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’ is a right. So many people think they are pursuing what makes them happy, but many of them never actually find it.

While sitting in our hot tub (the only place that I am forced to give up doing two or three things at once) I began to think of the things that make me instantaneously happy. By instantaneous, I mean from bitchy, bad mood to happy in less than 3 seconds. I surprised even myself at how many I rattled off to Patrick.

1) My nephews screaming my name at the top of their lungs when they realize I have walked through the door (my niece can’t talk yet!).

2) Putting the top down on my Jeep on a warm sunny day.

3) Watching Patrick sleep when the light is warm through our windows.

4) Looking up in the split second after I yank my pilot chute and realize my canopy is open and I am flying straight.

5) Buying a new computer or expensive peripheral (iPod, cell phone, PDA, etc.).

6) Sitting in my hot tub.

7) Being exhausted after skydiving all day and then driving around in the Jeep with the top down while on a beer run.

8) Standing on a bay-side balcony at the Marriott on the Bay in San Diego.

9) Feeling the air current from the rotor blades during run-up just when the droop-stops came out. “Droops out. Coming in Left!”

10) The initial ascent after the hover power check in the UH-60 BlackHawk.

11) Being half way through a bottle of amazing wine sharing amazing conversation and realizing that there is nowhere I would rather be at that moment.

12) Breakfast at Martha’s in Manhattan Beach.

13) Margarita’s (ordered by the pitcher, by color) at the Mexican restaurant at the end of the Hermosa Pier.

I am sure there are more. Some I will only ever experience again in my mind, but the important thing to me is I know they exist. I refuse to spend my life chasing those moments. Instead I need to consciously identify them and experiences them as much as humanly possible.