Choose Happiness

When I was in high school, like a million years ago, I use to say, "Life sucks and then you die!" It was all in jest and usually my way of making a dramatic situation a little more amusing, but I look back and want to smack myself! What a terrible thing to say! Life doesn't suck. Life is beautiful. Life is wonderful.

I have been asked throughout my life the golden question, "Are you happy?" It use to bother me. It always stopped me in my tracks and forced me to think about where I was in life. I would start naming my blessings; a way to reassure myself that I was in fact happy. Now, I just smile. Of course I am! Happiness is a choice, and I choose to be happy.

I could sit here and list endlessly all the reasons that support why I should be happy, but it doesn't matter unless I choose to embrace them. If I let the one negative thing in my life take over, then there is never going to be any amount of good things to counteract the bad.

Imagine a blank piece of paper. On this paper you color your blessings in yellow. As the blank page fills up with yellow markings, the white begins to disappear. Soon that white piece of paper is now yellow; all you can see is the happiness in your life. But what about the bad? You don't have very much bad in your life, so you'll use black to represent it. You take a black marker, and you draw a small little dot on your beautiful paper. You draw it in the corner away from the brightest yellow. As you hold up the paper, your eyes almost smile, but they instantly go to the black dot. You want to show people your picture, but their eyes are all drawn to the black. It is the smallest thing, but also the most noticeable. 

We all have negative things in our life; I certainly do. It's hard not to get pulled in by my little black dot. It's hard not to give my attention to something so blatantly obvious. If we feed the dot, it will grow. It will grow until it is the only thing you see, even if the rest of your life is filled with blessings, the black dot can consume you.

I choose to be happy. Every

single morning I wake up with the determination that today is going to be a good day. I invest my time and energy into the people and things that make me happy; my children, family, and closest friends. As I pump my energy into non-toxic things, I watch the black dot fade. My eyes no longer dart to it. My children are blessed by the positive energy that is displayed in our home. Happiness is contagious, and I watch my children react to my moods and emotions. I want their life to be filled with laughter, positivity, and light. When I am struggling to find the strength, I look at my sweet babes, and they give me the will to reach inside and find the power to choose happiness.

I guess the question now is, are you happy?