To Struggle Happily

There's two loved members in my family who are going to die soon. I put it bluntly because it's a fact of life. What makes me sad is the pain that they are in and that their families are in. These things got me thinking today and I wanted to say a few words.

When people say that they want "to be happy" or "to find love," they use such phrases as if such things were things that happen to you or as objects. You can't have an object called happiness and an object called love--those are states of being, as transcient as being excited or nervous. Happiness and love is something that appears in our paths every day, but we must keep our eyes open in order to grab those opportunities. 

We are always going to be struggling, whether it is economically, personally, professionally...It is important for us to be happy in our struggle. By happy I don't mean complacent. By happy I mean with enough energy to keep going and with enough gratitude to appreciate those moments I just talked about. It's impossible for someone to be happy all the time, so when you're happy in your struggle, you're still able to see those vestiges of magic life throws at us.

I'm not a fan of people saying that 'things happen for a reason.' I believe things happen and we give them reason. It's a choice for us to let tragedies overcome us and disable us. To desire for more is to desire to not give in.

Often, I hear people ask "why does this happen to me?" and I'm guilty of that, as well. However, we often say this when times are bad. When times are good, why don't we ask "why does this happen to me?" Have you thought about that? I think if we learn to think about that a little bit more, we'd be more grateful for those opportunities we have to grow.

I've learned to not give energy to sadness and resentment. It's natural for us to feel like that certain times but it is not normal for us to constantly feed those feelings. It takes too much energy to be sad when you can make a choice to be happy--or at least to not be sad anymore. 

Be stubborn about love--do not let it go. It is one of the purest forms of magic we have in our short lives. 

Be selfish with your happiness--do not let anyone take that away from you.