Happiness

 

Written by Journey of a Mountain Woman on Facebook (Shirley Noe Swiesz) May she rest in peace)

Sometimes I think of the weirdest things and I have I no idea why. Today I was thinking of happiness and how we often pile responsibility for that experience on other people...it might be a sibling, Parents, spouse, friends, boss, church, school, job. It could be anything.

I'm reminded of a friend who died in Alaska. Her last words to me were..."I can't live with him and I can't live without him. I'm so unhappy." I have often wondered if she had taken her happiness into her own hands, if her life would have been different. If she had gone to the commander and showed the bruises, she might have lived to raise her children. I'm not trying to blame the victim but sometimes we simply have to make choices.

I have opened my home to many only to have them say, "i'm unhappy"...mother-in-law, siblings, friends, relatives. I have been unhappy many times but like anger it disappears quickly. So does happiness, for we often go from one thing to another and find a dozen reasons to be unhappy. I have to often remind myself what makes me happy...being in the mountains, picking peaches in the summer sun in SC, reading a good book and a cup of hot coffee, sitting by a campfire even in my own yard, a conversation with a good friend. I don't need to see or talk to a good friend every day to keep me happy, just to know they're there for me is enough.

I am happy quilting, or watching a movie or digging in the dirt. But everyone is different and I believe there are different levels of happiness, one level for me is to find a great piece of junk, or that second cup of coffee with the morning news....perhaps the best levels are contentment, graditude, and knowing that a job that you undertook was well done.

I have no idea why I thought of this and an even less idea of why I wrote it...but I hope we take a few minutes each day to put a little gold star beside the things that made us happy that day...you surely remember how as a child you got little stars beside your name in school when you did well! I know they were the highlight of my day!

I pray when my life is over Someone will say "you worked hard to find that little bit of elusive happiness! You found it by yourself and no one pointed it out to you...I'll put a little gold star beside your name!"