Mitch Sneed at Large

In stressful times like we are all enduring, you sometimes have to search for things that make you happy wherever you can find them.
I was thinking to myself – “what are some things that give me a feeling of fulfillment and joy.”
So it’s list time again. Here is what came to mind.
• Seeing my girls laugh, love and live happy—knowing that they have learned some of life’s lessons through the mistakes I have made.
• A thick tenderloin steak cooked medium on the grill and served hot with a loaded baked potato, salad with bleu cheese dressing and a grilled pineapple on ice cream for desert.
• A cold beer after cutting the grass on a hot day.
• Fishing for hours with no place to be and no certain time to be there.
• Smelling the aroma of whatever they are baking at Knakals in the morning.
• Driving on a mountain road at sunset. I don’t know why, but that’s my favorite time of day.
• To hear Lynyrd Skynyrd sing “Sweet Home Alabama.”  I’ve worn out three albums, four cassettes and two CDs playing it over and over and over.
• Seeing someone’s face when they get that first taste of something delicious you just cooked.
• Stepping down hard on the gas pedal of an old car on a country road and feeling the roar that only comes from the kind of horsepower under the hood of something built in America more than 20 years ago.
• A hot shower with the radio playing in the background.
• A pair of PE shorts and a big sloppy T-shirt after a day when you have had to wear a suit and tie. There ain’t nothing better than to shell out of those clothes and get comfy.
• Twenty minutes in the steam room at Powell Wellness Center after a workout and a dip in the pool.
• A chili dog, a chili steak, onion rings and a Frosted Orange from the Varsity in Atlanta.
• A slow ride on a pontoon boat on a hot summer day.
• Sleeping in a lawn chair.
• The perfect whiff of the perfume left behind by the woman you love.
• A pulley bone fried to perfection from Buckner’s in Jackson, Georgia.
• The smell of a hickory fire in the air on a cold day.
• To see people excited to be Americans like they were Tuesday during the Inauguration. That sense of accomplishment that came from seeing an unlikely leader emerge and rise to our nation’s highest office was shared by all. Whether you agree with his politics or not, you have to admit that his election means that we have progressed as a nation.

Sometimes you just have to remind yourself that it doesn’t take much to make you happy. If I could only work in those PE shorts—life would be grand.