Don't Worry, Be Happy

For todays edition I am going to discuss something that frequents my thoughts quite regularly. Being happy. I think that being happy is a decision you make every day. You either want to be, and strive to achieve happiness , or you are content with being a grouch. Whether you're too lazy that particular day, or you LET someone get to you, or what have you. Happiness is a state of mind, and an important one at that.

So with that said, lets run over a few clichés. How about; "Woke up on the wrong side of the bed." IE you're just a grump that day. Now we all have these days. I had one of these last week, where first thing in the morning, things start going awry. Like dropping my mascara brush into my new fuzzy winter boots and having the brush miraculously do about 300 spirals all over the top, "fuzz" if I may, as well as all around the inside, as well as 3 spots down my arm. Really? It couldn’t have just fallen straight to the ground? It had to summersault like an Olympic diver all down the inside of my beautiful new boot? And then of course once you’ve awakened your inner grump nothing else seems to go your way that day. I myself always am constantly tripping, dropping things, or my favorite, where it seems as if my butt has grown three sizes overnight and I misjudge and knock over everything in my path.

You get my point here right? I think that if you wake up in the morning and verbally say "I am going to have a good day," then you will. Otherwise, I think you should wear a disclaimer so that the rest of us can stay out of the way. Because moods are contagious.

There is another cliché that says something along the lines of (and don’t kill me if I butcher this) "Be happy so that when others are around you, they cant help but be happy too." Something like that. And I have the perfect example of someone who personifies this. Her name is Ms. Earnestine, and she's probably 80 years old. I see her once a week and I always always think to myself after she's gone that I want to be more like her. Her happiness is contagious. She always greets me with a "Hey Kay!" and then we carry out our business. She is just so terribly friendly! And to be 80 (I'm guessing) and a widower, when most people are at their most cantankerous, she is an absolute delight.

Another point I feel I must make is that too often people do what makes OTHER people happy. I would call myself a people pleaser, to an extent. But there are some places where I have to draw the line. I often get called selfish. No, I am not going to argue that because I definitely can be. But you know what? I do what makes me happy. So where do you draw the line between selfishness and doing what makes you happy? I don't have the slightest idea. All I know is that when it's time for me to go, I want to have lived a life of "haves" not "have nots."