"Complex problems have easy-to-understand wrong answers." I'm sorry, I don't know where I got that quote, but I like it. In 2000 I had a halcyon year. Unfortunately I didn't know it at the time. Last fall (2002) my daughter was reorganizing her bedroom and came up with a photo of me. She said, "You look happy." I remember her taking that picture. It was late summer or early fall of 2000. I was cooking a meal. I looked good. That year I did lots of hiking with a fun companion and my dog. Life was fairly easy. My freelancing was winding down. I had lots of time. I took two hour walks just about every day before settling down to work. My companion was obliging and enjoyable. The children had just emptied the house, my daughter being the last to go (she graduated from high school that year).

So I replied, "I was happy." feeling pretty amazed to discover how happy I had been. It was that short time between the end of intense mothering responsibilities and the onset of menopause. I had lots of energy, lots of time, worked at what I enjoyed most and was in love. I had few cares and the ones I had I could avoid, ignore or easily solve. What could be better? I don't know how I got to that point but I'd like to get there again. I'd like to stay there—living forever in the halcyon days.

Shakespeare said it first in the bellicose play King Henry VI (first part). He had Joan of Arc say it when she tells her companions (Charles, future King of France, and Reignier, powerless King of Naples) her warring intentions. Here it is in Act 1, Scene 2.

Reignier.  My lord, where are you? what devise you on?
Shall we give over Orleans, or no? 
Joan.  Why, no, I say, distrustful recreants! 
Fight till the last gasp; I will be your guard.
Charles.  What she says, I'll confirm: we'll fight it out. 
Joan.  Assign’d am I to be the English scourge.
This night the siege assuredly I'll raise:
Expect Saint Martin’s summer,* halcyon days,
Since I have entered into these wars. 
Glory is like a circle in the water, 
Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself,
Till by broad spreading it disperse to nought. 
With Henry’s death the English circle ends;
Dispersed are the glories it included.
Now am I like that proud insulting ship
Which Cæsar and his fortune bare at once.

I suppose she was saying that things would be quickly resolved now that she was helping out—as quiet and peaceful as a warm, summer day. Actually, halcyon days are in the winter—Winter Solstice to be exact. The Sicilians believed the Kingfisher made her nest on the ocean waves. While this took place, the 7 days before and after the Solstice, the sea would be calm and the winds would not blow. Probably an important point for a seafaring nation. The label "kingfisher" was derived from two greek words meaning "to brood on the sea." Doesn't sound easy or peaceful to me. However, this comparatively peaceful period has been translated over the years into

ADJECTIVE: 1. Calm and peaceful; tranquil.
2. Prosperous; golden: halcyon years.

(By the way, don't think of naming your music group Halcyon. There are four so far on the internet. In fact, give up naming anything halcyon. It's been done.) There are lots of kingfishers, most of them very rich-looking with long, narrow beaks. As we now know, they don't nest on the water but in the banks next to it in deep holes. Maybe this is a key to peace?

Anyway, my question: How did I get there and how do I get there again? My happy, animated face keeps popping into my mind and hanging there like a poster ad. I can't go back. How can I get there from here? The easy, and probably wrong answer, would be to duplicate those circumstances, which I can't do. Somewhere deep must be a constant that brought me to that halcyon year. Those ripples of happiness still wash over me occasionally and I ride them like a common seagull.

At the time I found nothing remarkable about my life. I wasn't aware of my happiness and not terribly aware of my unhappiness. Things worked most of the time and when they didn't .... eh! I accepted my life as I watched the freelancing slowly coming to an end. Like the mythical version of the bird, I nested peacefully on the water.