STOP AWHILE TO ENJOY HAPPINESS

Let’s try something which many of us tend to overlook. Think about this… don’t we often complain how unhappy we are – how miserable, gloomy, forlorn, sad, wretched, heartbroken, hopeless, or bleak life is? Well, I do. Yeah, maybe it’s normal and everybody goes through something like that sometime. But...

Imagine yourself going about your day with a long face or a boring expression or with a lifeless look in your eyes… and… your feet feeling like a ton of bricks. Have you noticed too how you are affecting those around you or people who happen to cross your path in that day? Notice what comes out of your mouth when you talk – negative static and unenthusiastic talk? Sense people slowly steer themselves away from you or put in a marked distance between you and them?

Unhappiness causes all that. But unhappiness is not the cause of your feeling that way. You don’t say that you are that way because you are unhappy. But rather that you are unhappy because something going on is not right with you or in your life and this in turn is causing you some misery.

That something may be failed expectations, disappointments, loss, grief, broken promises, betrayals, or even a status quo where you had hoped there would be some movement or progress.

But it’s not healthy.

The thing that we should note is that we have full control over it. Two things we can do --- one is to stay or wallow in misery and the other is… to decide to pluck some bits of joy in our midst or from within ourselves.

Life does not offer us a basket of difficulties alone believed by most of us. But it offers us a good mix of both joy and sorrow. It’s right there in the same basket. All that we must do is learn to do some picking for stuff which would make us happy. You’ll be surprised to know that often those things are the trivial bits around us which we often ignore or neglect –

a lovely sunrise, a poignant sunset, the cool drops of rain, intriguing cloud formations, the deep blue skies, a bud transformed into a beautiful flower, a statuesque tree silhouetted against the sky, tree tops dancing in the wind, gurgling waters flowing merrily down the stream, a baby’s small fingers clutching your thumb, the deeply lined face of a bent elderly woman smiling at you, the gentle hearts of good friends, the love of your family, the adoring eyes of your sweetheart, a rainbow in the sky, or God’s treasure of blessings pouring down into your day and life -- And many more.

Have you ever stopped to enjoy these things? There is no reason to be unhappy for long. Maybe you will for awhile as the unpleasantness of that something is touching your life, but not for long because you can change your attitude towards it and turn your negative feelings into one of wise tolerance and acceptance and understanding. This will help you see things in a much better light and even feel appreciation for the presence of good and better things in the midst of misery. Happiness therefore is already there for your easy picking, if you would only stop awhile to see it and enjoy it.

Plenty of people miss their share of happiness,
not because they never found it,
but because they didn’t stop to enjoy it.

–William Feather