Thought for the day: Happiness...

Thought for the day:

There can be no happiness if the things we believe in are different from the things we do. ~Freya Stark, The Journey's Echo ----


When I read that statement it makes me think about my past... the decisions I have made and how they didn't match up to what I knew made me happy or would make me happy. They were decisions based on other people's happiness. I was living my life to make others happy... and I put my happiness aside. I wasted a lot of years doing that and will never do that again. The only person besides myself that I will care about what they think about my decisions in life is God. And with my focus being on doing God's will for my life... I think I finally have it figured out!
Now don't get me wrong, I'm always happy and always positive! So, it's not like I was miserable in life at all.
I CAN be happy doing most anything... not real picky. For I have a grateful heart and appreciate the small things in life  (sunrise, sunsets, pictures of nature, hot water showers, the joy of my children, hot tea in the morning, chatting with friends, flowers and candles aroma, to name a few) that a lot of people take for granted. I try to always live my life as if it's my last days. Because you never know when it will be your last days. The people close to me, know how I feel about them. I tell them. I won't have a death bed wish of wishing I had told them... because I do now while I'm alive.
Happiness is not something that someone can do for you or to you... happiness is found within yourself.  Happiness is a choice. No matter what your situation is in your life, and they are constantly, you yourself have to choose to be happy. Everyday, no matter what... it's a choice.
It's easier to be happy if you have a grateful heart. Because with a grateful heart you can focus on the basics of what truly matters in life (bed to sleep in, warmth or cool, food to eat, clothes to wear, tooth brush and tooth paste,  family, friends)... all the rest... is just life that happens. That being said, there are some people withOUT some of those basics... that are very happy people, because... they have and believe in God. If you have God in your life... how can you NOT be happy? seriously? He and he alone should be enough to make us all happy! God sending his son to die for us! To save us from Hell!... HOW can you NOT be happy with that news?! Too many people lose sight of that fact. They take that huge display of God's love for us for granted. They don't appreciate it. They feel like it's owed them. Which is sad...
Happiness is from the soul... happiness of soul...

In my past I was with people that were not happy people. No matter what I tried,... I couldn't make them happy. Took me awhile to realize that I was not responsible for their happiness... they are. Being around those type people... brings me down. They rob people around them of their happiness. Some of them even think that it IS the responsibility of others to make them happy and when you aren't making them happy with their unhappy selves the blame you. I don't miss those days. Not being around people like that... is like a weight lifted off my shoulders. I no longer have to try to make them understand that happiness is found within themselves. (people that think like that... don't take kindly to suggestions either - my personal experience)...

So, for the year 2010... I WILL be true to myself... my happiness... my God and all the decisions I make... everything I believe in WILL be what I do.