The word from my heart pocket is Happiness!
What makes you happy?
I started asking people and most of them said "To not have to worry about money." Not everyone included only this statement but nearly everyone mentioned it. Some said their grandchildren make them happy. Some said they WOULD be happy if they had a new job. And on the back side of that one, everyone said "I'd like to be paid for what I do."
I dove into that one a little bit. When asked to elaborate, every one of the persons wanted to be doing something else for a living and that something else what was what they chose to do in their spare time. A lawyer wanted to be a radio announcer. A schoolteacher wanted to be an actress. A mother of 3 wanted to start a foundation for putting children together with elderly who don't have grandchildren. The word happy became more frequent and more evident was how each person lighted up as they talked about that vocation, that calling that spoke to their heart, not to their pocket book.
Whole conversations with people I had never met turned into sharing our lives when we exchanged thoughts about how we could be happy and I noticed that in every case except one, we moved to a happy state of mind just talking about being happy. We laughed and brainstormed and encouraged each other and shared ideas none of us had before.
Much of the time we go about doing the same things over and over. If those same things make a person happy then life is working. Routine can bring great happiness to some people. It feels good to have stability and surety and it is when that applecart is upset that this type of person becomes unhappy. If we find ourselves grumpy or feeling low, complaining about the same things over and over and accepting them as "just the way it is", it might be good to change things up a bit. Sometimes getting a change of venue makes a difference - driving to work a new way, organizing an outing with people at work or in the neighborhood, speaking to the person you sit next to every day on the bus. We get stimulation this way and energy starts to flow. Our happiness factor rises when energy is flowing. Stagnation is dull and festering. Movement is interesting and energizing.
Happiness comes in as many ways as there are thoughts. We have the power to change our thinking and there is the key to happiness. We experience happiness when we are satisfied, even if the situation is serious. We feel happy when there is hope after a time of darkness. Happiness comes with peace of mind, contentment and it is absolutely contagious.
To be happy requires a sense of humor. To be happy means we make choices in line with what we want from life. If we are not feeling happy, something is amiss and we have the power to change that.
This is not to say we discount our feelings of sadness or anger or disappointment. It is human to respond to what happens to us, to those we love, to our world. But happiness is present in every part of our lives and we embrace it by seeing life as a whole, not just the slice we are living at the moment.
I mentioned that in conversations about "what makes you happy" everyone moved into a state of happiness just talking about it, except one. His name was Josh and he was 5. He was one of the 3 children of the mom who wanted to start the foundation. Josh was listening to our discussion and when there was a brief lull, he piped up, "I'm happy." I asked him, "Why are you happy?" He looked straight at me, raised his eyebrows and clearly said, "Because that's me."
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