A few days ago my very good friend called asking if I’d be home for a while. “I need to talk to you,” she said with such intensity that it scared me a little. Imagining all kinds of things I waited impatiently for her to appear at my door.
Immediately upon entering she asked, “Are you happy?” I was stunned by the question and queried why she was asking. “Because,” she answered, “it seems so many people I know are unhappy, and I want to know about you.”
After thinking for a few minutes, I told her I wasn’t sure I was always happy but that my life was good in so many ways it was easy to be content. That seemed to satisfy her and we went on to have a wonderful conversation about being happy.
Since then I’ve thought a lot about our talk and what prompted it asking over and over again what is happy. Among the dictionary definitions is feeling or showing pleasure or contentment. OK, so if I am content I must be happy, right?
The truth is I’m not always happy. When things aren’t right in my family, I am very long faced. A bad day playing tennis or duplicate bridge can put me in a funk. Conflict of any kind causes my emotional barometer to be very unsteady. Having a friend learn that cancer has returned or who suffers from dementia breaks my heart. Losing a family member or a friend upsets the rhythms of my life.
Is that all to say that life resembles a roller coaster? It has its ups and downs meaning we have no choice but to roll with it being sure not to let the downs become a permanent condition. Being happy can be such a challenge because some days are just bad days or as one friend says, “There’s no such thing as a bad day. Some days are just better than others.” When those days occur, there is a choice to make and that is whether to embrace life with all it has to offer or to remain stuck in place. Can you guess my choice?
Boy, I don’t have all the answers for what it takes to be happy, but I do think that part of it is the ability to move on, to choose how you are going to let life affect you. What I know for sure is that I am on the downside having lived more than half my life and I don’t want to waste a single minute being unhappy. I want to find joy in the ordinary of each day and in loving and being loved.
How about you? What is your take on happy?
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lulu
Changing houses takes a little time to settle in, but there is one thing that has priority, and I don’t mean unpacking suitcases or going to the grocery. I mean getting the porch ready for the hours we spend there.
The porch is where we often start our day enjoying morning coffee
and watching the lobster boats heading out for or returning from the day’s work.
It is where we relax with a book,
observe the birds that come to the feeder
enjoy time with friends and family
and have afternoon tini time.
Once the furniture is in place, the next step is to go to the nursery to replenish the potted plants that did not make it through the winter.
Now all is done and that means I can sit and rock. 
