I felt happy today.
Actually, I tend toward the happy side of life most of the time. I am one of those people who is optimistic, most of the time. I am not Pollyanna, though. I don't walk around talking about how wonderful things are all the time. And sometimes I am feeling my way through anxiety and self doubt and worry, and crabbiness, especially the crabbiness, just ask my husband, he'll tell you. But, the sunny side....yeah, I usually live there.
But, real and true happiness....how do you know when you have it and when you are feeling it? Because most of life is made up of tasks and chores that have nothing to do with happiness. Most of life is more of a contentment than a happiness. And contentment is good. But happiness feels better.
And oddly, I noticed this while driving back from the grocery store. And I took notice because, although it wasn't a bad day, it wasn't anything special in terms of days either. But, there it was again, that feeling that life is good and I am living it.
There were reasons to not be happy. The weather was gray and cool. I have a sick middle child who couldn't go to the batting cages like he wanted to. I couldn't go to the yoga class I was invited to this morning because I had other things to do. It was too cold for the beach. The sun was hiding. We couldn't try out the new slip and slide.
But, then there was the other stuff. There was watching Jack Jack have a great time playing t-ball. There was getting stuff done. There was a feeling that I was doing things the right way. There was the promise of the husband BBQing. There was some of my favorite beer in my grocery bags. There is the fact that I have only three more work days. There was a time for a run this morning. There was snuggling with my boys. There was a Mary Poppins video (yes a real live VHS tape...so old school) and Jack Jack being amazed that I knew all the words to all the songs in the entire movie.
And these are such...plain old, normal, every day things. And yet, today they made me happy. And isn't that what true happiness is? Finding the joy in the every day things?
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8 comments:
That's what I think true happiness is too! Finding joy and contentment in the little things of each day.
That's quite the happy and optimistic post. Somehow you ended up less cynical than me. How is that? Enjoy your beer! I enjoyed mine with lunch.
Good idea... somebody should name their blog that very thing....
Yay! Days when you feel real, honest happiness are so wonderful. I'm glad you found one.
Tykxboy - here is my blog post in response to your comment....
I am not sure how that happened.
But I can remember, even in school, that it would bug me when people automatically thought that the negative would happen.
At the same time, these are people who were my best friends, so maybe they were brought into my life to give me balance.
Even with my optimist attitude, I would still say that I am more of a realist than a true optimist.
the other thing is that if you are really and truly happy all the time, do you know you are happy? I think that the happy feeling was so...striking, because it was different from my every day normal feelings. Of course I had just been through a bout of hormonal flux (probably more than you wanted to know....) so it is (realistically speaking) quite possible that the happy was so noticeable because it was so opposite the feelings I had just been feeling.
Yup, I think that is happiness!
I love days like that....
I totally agree! That is what keeps me going.
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