Mundane happiness

A 'remarkable compendium of seemingly unremarkable yet powerful moments of everyday bliss culled from several millennia of personal correspondence and journals by famous poets, artists, scientists, philosophers, novelists, and other thinkers'. That's A Private History of Happiness by George Myserson, according to the review of it here. It emphasizes the 'little' days of personal happiness as opposed to the big dates of the historical calendar - which makes good sense. Amongst several examples cited of happiness through communing with nature, there's one from Francesco Petrarca, who was 'always in a sad and languishing state when... not writing'. In a letter to a friend he wrote: 'I labour when I rest, and find my rest in labour'. Happy families may be all alike, but the happiness of individuals is more various.