Happiness

For a lot of years, and maybe it's just youth and inexperience, I spent much of my time pointing fingers at why I wasn't happy at that particular moment. "My car is broken." "My boss is unrealistic." "We always do whatever you want to do." "My parents are getting divorced." "The economy sucks." And on and on and on. Luckily I've had a few honest and forthright friends along the way willing to grab my shoulders and shake me out of my self-inflicted victimization. Because after all, the first lesson you learn as a farm kid is that the corn doesn't grow unless you plant it, and if you don't plant it...no one else is going to do it for you. Own your actions and decisions. Take responsibility. As Shannon Hoon (of Blind Melon fame for you non-music-snobs:)) would say, "when life is hard, you have to change."

Some sad news came my way today regarding a dear friend who wasn't happy, and wasn't willing to change to make himself so. We all get bogged down by gray weather, long winters, bad economies, lackluster relationships and aging Siberian Huskies...to name a few :) However what I've somehow learned along the way...and which I hope to never forget...is that we make our own happiness. We are the masters and commanders of our own universes. And despite an ailing economy, the credit market in ruins, a rapidly overpopulated earth and the unfortunate boom of reality television (okay I admit I'm a Hills addict. It's sad but true. I'm currently engaging in an Ernest Hemingway treatment program :))...we have the luxury of free will. The ability and right to wake up in the morning on the sunny side of the street.

So...here's to all of the rays of sunshine in my life...who inspire me each and every moment to be a better person, a smarter person, a happier person. You know who you are:) "There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way." -Buddha