I can pinpoint almost the exact moment when I reverted from being a moaning, groaning, self-pitiful, angry, ANNOYING individual to the care-free, happy go lucky sprite you see standing before you today.
It was precisely 1:15 pm.  It was on a Tuesday.  It was in 1980.  It was midsummer.
Actually, that was the moment when I decided I no longer WANTED to be a moaning, groaning, self-pitiful, angry, ANNOYING individual.  That was the day that, exasperated with my routine belly aching, the kindest, gentlest, most long-suffering bookkeeper in the world wearily looked up at me through squinted eyes and hissed, “Kit, why don’t you just quit feeling so sorry for yourself!?!”
I retreated to my office, slumped at my desk, felt MORE sorry for myself. And then, I did the math.
I HATED it when people told me to quit feeling sorry for myself.  The only way I knew how to quit hearing them tell me to quit feeling sorry for myself was to, well, QUIT feeling sorry for myself.
It was a difficult, irritating journey.  Being analytical to a fault, I focused nearly every moment for the next five years to NOT feeling sorry for myself, to accepting responsibility for my actions, my feelings.  I quit using excuses (ie, crutches).  I expanded my vocabulary to include empowering terms, and diminished victimization ones.  I quit finding fault with everything and everyone.
And then, one day in 1985, I felt something wiggling up out of my throat. I nearly choked.  It was a wiggling, tickling, giggle.  It was genuine, heart felt, spontaneous, natural.  It was refreshing.  I liked it.  I decided to do it again. Frequently. Soon I was laughing – A LOT.  
* * * Here’s an incomplete list of things I do imperfectly to keep my spirit laughing.
1 – Drink plenty of Coke.  It’s the REAL thing.  Sure, it’ll soften your teeth and eventually you’ll have to have them all removed.  But why let a little thing like oral health stand between you and bliss?
2 – Wear Birkenstocks. Exclusively.  I have ten pairs.  All different sorts of styles.  I don’t think I own one stitch of clothing that did not come from Goodwill or the Salvation Army.  Except for my underwear.  And my Birkenstocks.  But I do not pinch pennies when it comes to my feet!  Or my underwear.  Some things are sacred.
3 – Hang out with goats.  It is scientifically impossible to be in a bad humor in the presence of goats.  Do not, however (and I cannot stress this enough), ever, under ANY circumstances sleep with a goat.  You’ve been warned.
4 – Behave respectfully.  To everyone.  Including yourself.  There are many situations I do not know how to handle myself in.  If I treat the folks who are in those situations with me with respect the way becomes clear.
5 – Make peace with your fat.  Enjoy your physical imperfections.  Do not obsess about the waist line that stayed in high school when you left for college.
6 – Associate with folks who are joyful.  We are what we eat.  If you read angry, cynical diatribes, if you hang out with mean-spirited cranky people, don’t be surprised when you find yourself becoming more and more irritable.   7 – Wear funny hats.  It is impossible to take yourself too seriously when you wear a funny hat.  
8 – Play in water.  Keep a large arsenal of squirt guns handy, and fully loaded.  Take long showers or bubble baths, both if possible.  Dance in the rain, naked if possible (please consult your community’s ordinances on this matter).
9 – Be a part of growth.  Whether that means planting and tending a garden, or being part of a helping community or organization, or being an attentive and supportive family member – be active in the growth of life outside yourself.  You cannot be part of that which is growing without growing yourself.
10 – Find the music of your soul.  It is the universal language.  When the aliens finally get here they probably won’t understand our languages.  But I’m going to grab a dulcitar and start playing a tune for them.  I hope they won’t vaporize me.
11 – Take lots of naps – these are the nectar of the gods.  Activity is highly over-rated.
12 – Wash your car at least once a year, whether it needs it or not. Nothing says, “I feel pretty” so much as pulling out of a car wash with little beads of water all over the hood.  Please remember to roll your windows up before washing your car.  Nothing says, “I feel soggy” so much as sitting in a wet car.
* * * In fact, I am not sure what a little doodle is, and I have no idea why they are always so doggone happy.  Nonetheless, I was born one, remained one until life interrupted my happy little doodlehood when I was nine, and I reclaimed my doodleness when I was twenty-nine.
There are a lot of important things in the world.  There is nothing more importantthan being a happy little doodle!