A Happy Choice

TODAY'S QUOTE:
Happiness is a conscious choice, not an automatic response.
-Mildred Barthel


To be or not to be ...happy... that is the question! The answer ought to be the automatic response of yes, but that isn't always the case. Life is overflowing with ought to be's, and this one makes the top ten list without really trying. The only thing worse than being unhappy, is being unhappy voluntarily... choosing to suffer just makes no sense at all.

Yes, feeling pain is mandatory, sorrow is a requirement, grief is the price we pay for loving, heartache is the cost of living, but they are not meant to be embraced daily or wallowed in at will. They have their seasons, dark and frigid like winter, but mixed in are unseasonable days filled with sunbeams and warmth, before the final coming of spring.

The gift of life itself is worthy of a generous heaping measure of gaiety. The ability to love is a priceless reason for joy. Small miracles surround us, inspiring delight... larger ones leave us awe-struck. Even the ordinary, when viewed by happy eyes, takes on a depth that is almost magical. Developing happy eyes is quite easy when everything is put into it's proper perspective and the child inside has permission to play.

Sometimes all it takes is the realization that as human beings we have the right to pursue happiness. We also have the duty. Unhappiness is contagious... most of us never suffer alone, so if we refuse to be happy we doom the same fate upon those closest to us. If fate demands that we infect others with something... then joy, or comfort, or peace are more civilized choices by far for a mass epidemic.

The quickest way to find happiness is to give it to someone else. If done with an open heart, the waves of their joy will quickly overwhelm any gloom it encounters. When I think of it in this fashion it is an almost effortless exercise. To be, or not to be... happy... that is the question. And my answer is yes, if not for my sake then I embrace it for the innocent bystanders that are doomed to share my fate. My fate is happiness, whenever possible, and the wise weathering of winter, so as to not infect my fellowman. This is my choice, my right, and my salvation. Think about it... let it ride... then decide!!!