Are You Happy?featured

My mom sent me a quote the other day. It read: “You know those moments when you are desperately looking for your sunglasses and you realize they had been on your head the entire time? Yeah, something similar happens with happiness.”

I almost cried when I read this. Okay, I will admit it, I am an overly emotional 20-something. Even so, this quote made me feel all sorts of emotion because I wish someone had told me this when I was younger.

I wish I had realized happiness doesn’t have to look or feel a certain way.

Happiness is fleeting. Life is a series of happy and sad moments. There are moments where happiness lingers for longer and other moments where it seems like it never even existed. 

The hardest thing for me has been to learn to find happiness in places I never thought it could be found.

I once thought happiness would be attained when I was married and living behind a white picket fence. I lived most of my life thinking happiness was finite. I thought I could enter a room called “happiness” and never look back. I guess you could say I was extremely naive.

I now find happiness all around me. I find it in moments with family. I find it in the sparkle of an eye of a stranger. I find it in those unexplainable moments of kindness people offer up to me. I find it on those lazy Sunday mornings in bed. I find it in the coffee he makes me in the morning. I find it in those unexpected thoughtful gifts. I can honestly say I can find a glimpse of happiness in my everyday.

That is not to say my smile doesn’t hide a certain darkness or some skeletons, but I have risen above a lot of sadness. This didn’t happen overnight. This happened because one day I chose to let go of the heavy burdens I carried every second of my life. The burdens that restrained me from living a fulfilling life alongside happiness and joy.

I used to think I was my past. This kept me from finding true happiness in the present moment. I used to think that was what defined me, but guess what? It’s just a story. It’s my story and I can choose to share it with others if I like. I don’t feel shameful sharing bits of my past with others, but some moments are solely for me.

So instead of wallowing in my pain and disappointments, I choose happiness time and time again.

I choose to smile and giggle 90 percent of my day. Why? Because happiness begets love, kindness, peace, serenity, health, and oh so much more. 

I choose to redefine myself every moment that I wake. I do this by setting out to find happiness in new moments and places every single day. 

I fight for my happiness. Do you?

Love Deeply and Forever,

Karen

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