Active duty service members often carry sentimental items to help combat the challenges of war – perhaps a picture of a loved one, a handwritten letter, or a good luck charm. For Marine Cpl. Scott Harrison, that item was a music box from his sister, which he would hold close to his ear during breaks in the fighting during the Vietnam War. “I would close my eyes, and I would think of a carousel in a mountain meadow,” Harrison told CBS News. “… An image totally opposite of where people are trying to kill each other.”
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Harrison left the war in 1968, but his carousel daydream continued to help him through a different battle: post-traumatic stress disorder. He eventually decided to buy a broken-down carousel and bring his fantasy to life spending 26 years handcarving the animals himself.
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In 2010, Harrison opened the carousel to the public in Nederland, Colorado, and launched a nonprofit called Carousel of Happiness to spread smiles round and round for all. “Just to go to that carousel and see everybody having such a great time, is good medicine for me,” Harrison said. “Because I started out trying to treat myself, and then it just changed into something that I could do for others.”

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source credit: CBS News

”there is in the worst of fortune, the best of chances for a happy change.’

-euripides

‘we are mosaics — pieces of light, love, history, stars

— glued together with magic and music and words.’

– anita krizzan

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image credit: nature, asbmb journal

(still shot of our video capture, not a tech glitch)

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when you are waiting

for your family to arrive at Ikea

for the day’s adventure

and you notice

you and carol, the friendly greeter

are dressed in matching outfits

you naturally greet them together.

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‘all who joy would win must share it.

happiness was born a twin.’

-lord byron

hopscotch in the woods

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‘i cling to the optimistic belief that the haphazard and the hopscotch,

the creature that sips among many flowers, may actually come up with something.’

-brad leithauser, american poet, novelist, essayist, and teacher

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country farm park, Ann Arbor, mi, usa – summer 2025

out walking in my neighborhood

when the 100+ degree day

finally cools down

seeing people out

doing what it’s too hot to do

under the blazing sun of the day

as dusk falls

gardeners are digging

pets are walking

people are strolling

neighbors are talking

fireflies are flashing

the town is quietly abuzz.

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‘life is like butter, when it cools down, it can be reshaped.’

-alan sheinwald

“one of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world

is to stand up and show your soul.”

-clarissa pinkola estes

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art credit: sharkey art