tedgresham
Writer, Thinker, Trouble Maker
There's something in the American psyche that everyone should be HAPPY! Yeah, baby, I want happiness! Seriously?
Happiness comes in moments, little blips of time in our lives, when things come together for us on occasion. It's impossible to maintain "happiness" continuously. Some of us find it less often than others and when we see those others we tend to be resentful. But the happiest people have moments of depression, anger, confusion. We just don't see them. They happen behind closed doors. And true happiness does not come with the latest iPad or newest car or biggest house. It comes only in those moments when we sit in the sunshine and can appreciate our life above all else.
Rather than happiness I believe we should seek contentment. Contentment is something we can maintain most of the time. Whatever situation we are in we can learn to accept some things, figure out how to change other things, and then be contented at that moment to just BE. I'm happy sometimes, like when my kids hug me. Sometimes I'm pissed, sometimes depressed, but there is a thread of contentment that runs through my life because I know who I am, I know I've done what I can, and I accept myself as who I am.
I may be a royal fresia up most of the time but I'm not a "looser." I can't be, because I refuse to play the game. Yeah, I'd like sushi for dinner every day, have a few things I don't have, but that's life. I'd like for my plants to grow and not die, for gas to be ten cents a gallon, for people to stop bitchin' all the time and for wars to end. What can I do about that stuff? Virtually nothing.
What do I do? I plant new seeds. I putter around on my Facebook supporting Occupy Wall Street. Whatever. But in my personal life I just appreciate what I have and let it be enough. And when a little chance to get what I want pops up, I grab it.
If we spend all our time looking at what everybody else has and compare it to ourselves we're always going to see our lives as honeysuckle, no matter how good it might be. If, however, we look at ourselves first and see that we may be down on the low end but we're still breathing, we are not completely without, we're not alone in the world but share a planet with at least a few people like us, then, you know, we can reconcile it.
Slipknot says "people = honeysuckle." Yeah, maybe, so what. *I* am not honeysuckle. Whenever I can I show kindness and respect and sometimes I run across people who are not honeysuckle. Sometimes I even find friends or at least friendly people. The rest can go fresia themselves, I won't let their stink get on my clothes. I am me. Me is good.
The funny thing is that the less we grope after what we want and the more we put into just getting ourselves moving to make improvements we wind up with more than if we just sit on our hands and bawl all the time. Weird, huh?
Happiness comes in moments, little blips of time in our lives, when things come together for us on occasion. It's impossible to maintain "happiness" continuously. Some of us find it less often than others and when we see those others we tend to be resentful. But the happiest people have moments of depression, anger, confusion. We just don't see them. They happen behind closed doors. And true happiness does not come with the latest iPad or newest car or biggest house. It comes only in those moments when we sit in the sunshine and can appreciate our life above all else.
Rather than happiness I believe we should seek contentment. Contentment is something we can maintain most of the time. Whatever situation we are in we can learn to accept some things, figure out how to change other things, and then be contented at that moment to just BE. I'm happy sometimes, like when my kids hug me. Sometimes I'm pissed, sometimes depressed, but there is a thread of contentment that runs through my life because I know who I am, I know I've done what I can, and I accept myself as who I am.
I may be a royal fresia up most of the time but I'm not a "looser." I can't be, because I refuse to play the game. Yeah, I'd like sushi for dinner every day, have a few things I don't have, but that's life. I'd like for my plants to grow and not die, for gas to be ten cents a gallon, for people to stop bitchin' all the time and for wars to end. What can I do about that stuff? Virtually nothing.
What do I do? I plant new seeds. I putter around on my Facebook supporting Occupy Wall Street. Whatever. But in my personal life I just appreciate what I have and let it be enough. And when a little chance to get what I want pops up, I grab it.
If we spend all our time looking at what everybody else has and compare it to ourselves we're always going to see our lives as honeysuckle, no matter how good it might be. If, however, we look at ourselves first and see that we may be down on the low end but we're still breathing, we are not completely without, we're not alone in the world but share a planet with at least a few people like us, then, you know, we can reconcile it.
Slipknot says "people = honeysuckle." Yeah, maybe, so what. *I* am not honeysuckle. Whenever I can I show kindness and respect and sometimes I run across people who are not honeysuckle. Sometimes I even find friends or at least friendly people. The rest can go fresia themselves, I won't let their stink get on my clothes. I am me. Me is good.
The funny thing is that the less we grope after what we want and the more we put into just getting ourselves moving to make improvements we wind up with more than if we just sit on our hands and bawl all the time. Weird, huh?