I was really honored that yesterday, Gretchen Rubin, amazing author and happiness evangelist included me in her series of Happiness Project interviews.

(You can also find it on Slate, which…wow. Kinda nice.)

It seems like happiness is making a comeback. Or maybe because I’m interested in it, the happiness stuff is just finding me. This past spring, Meagan Francis launched The Happiest Mom to change the parenting discussion from preserving sanity to striving for joy. (Her words.) And I’m always thinking of folks like Jen Lemen and Karen Walrond who strike me as being focused on putting beauty into the world and spreading happiness, building up their communities instead of tearing them down.

These are the people I try to have in my head more and more lately, as opposed to the energy suckers and the fair-weather friends and the walking trainwrecks who want to suck the world into their personal dramas, of which there seems to be a new one every minute of every day.

Although man, it is fun to get sucked into a good personal drama. But it’s kind of like a one night stand – it gets your blood pumping at the time but afterward…well. You know.

One of the answers I gave Gretchen in the interview seems to have struck a chord. She asked me Is there anything that you see people around you doing or saying that adds a lot to their happiness or detracts a lot from their happiness? I answered:

The happiest people seem to be very focused  whatever they are doing. Unhappy people seem to be very focused on what other people are doing.

I think it’s true. So I’m making a pledge to myself to try and refocus a bit. Even though it can be hard. Really hard. But if it makes me a little happier then I’ll consider it a success.

I always take the side in the ugly parenting debates that what’s most important isn’t whether you breastfeed or formula feed, whether you work or stay at home, whether your kids sleep in your bed or not. It’s happy parents = happy kids.

I want my kids to be happy. I’m pretty sure that starts with me.