Smile!
The world is blue enough
Without your feeling blue.
Smile!
There’s not half joy enough
Unless you’re happy, too.
Smile!
The sun is always shining,
And there’s work to do.
Smile!
This world may not be Heaven,
But then it’s Home to you.
I read an online article yesterday that was headlined, The Most Important Question To Ask Yourself if You Want to be Happy.” I wanted to know what that question was. I clicked on the link and it took me to the article. I was not interested in all the filler before the author got to the question, so I scanned the article looking for the question that was going to make me happier. I scrolled over paragraphs and past ads until I found it about half way through the article. The question the author suggested we ask ourselves before we begin an endeavor is, “Will this make me happy?” That’s simple enough. At first I thought it was simplistic, the more I thought about it, I realized it was profound. Today, for example, I’m off to the DMV to renew my license. My appointment is mid morning. I was thinking I could hustle to the gym, get my workout in and then slide into the DMV with at least 15 minutes to spare. I asked myself the following question, “Will getting your workout in make you happier?” My answer was, “It will stress me out.” I’ll give my body a day off today.” I am already feeling more relaxed. Try asking yourself the question or a variation of it, it may help you to feel happier or less stressed.
I’m up early, usually around 5 a.m. I get up in a good mood and head into the day with a great attitude. This morning I felt a bit grumpy. I didn’t like the feeling. My mind reeled for a quick fix. I sat on the edge of the bed pondering my next move when the solution struck like a lightening bolt. I asked Alexa, my digital assistant, to play the “Chicken Dance.” The music started and I popped out of bed and did the chicken dance around the bedroom. Grumpy mood gone. I was ready to start the day. Enjoy the YouTube video and pick up your mood.
George Sterling
Calling you now, not for your flesh I call,
Nor for the mad, long raptures of the night
And passion in its beauty and its might,
When the ecstatic bodies rise and fall.
I cannot feign: God knows I see it all—
The flaming senses, raving with delight,
The leopards, swift and terrible and white,
Within the loins that shudder as they crawl.
All that could I exultingly forego,
Could I but stand, one flash of time, and see
Your heavenly, entrancing face, and know
I stood most blest of all beneath the sun,
Hearing these words from your fond lips to me:
“I love, love you, and love no other one!”
Most sweet it is with unuplifted eyes
To pace the ground, if path be there or none,
While a fair region round the traveller lies
Which he forbears again to look upon;
Pleased rather with some soft ideal scene,
The work of Fancy, or some happy tone
Of meditation, slipping in between
The beauty coming and the beauty gone.
If Thought and Love desert us, from that day
Let us break off all commerce with the Muse:
With Thought and Love companions of our way,
Whate’er the senses take or may refuse,
The Mind’s internal heaven shall shed her dews
Of inspiration on the humblest lay.
In July, 1942, Anne Frank’s parents received a summons from the Nazi’s to report to a labor camp. Instead, they went to a secret annex to hide from Nazi’s. Thirteen year old Anne Frank remained there until her arrest on August 4, 1944, deported and eventually killed. Anne Frank maintained a diary while in the secret annex. The following excerpt is taken from Anne Frank’s diary.
“Whoever is happy will make others happy.”
― Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl
NOTE: We project to others what we internally feel. We’ve all experienced being in a great mood only to get caught up with someone who is in an ugly mood. Their ugly mood sucks us into a black hole. It’s one reason I minimize contact with these people. They are more contagious than COVID-19. Alternatively, our good mood can lift the spirits of another. We have an amazing power within us to transform another person’s day. Did you realize you have that superpower? You do! To develop and use this power takes personal work. We begin by loving and forgiving ourselves. Then we develop a deep sense of gratitude both big and small. Once we do our inner work, happiness happens. You don’t have to find it. When we encounter other people our superpower kicks in and we brighten their day. They feel better because they encountered a happy person filled with love and gratitude.
I Taught Myself to Live Simply
Anna Akhmatova
I taught myself to live simply and wisely, to look at the sky and pray to God, and to wander long before evening to tire my superfluous worries. When the burdocks rustle in the ravine and the yellow-red rowanberry cluster droops I compose happy verses about life's decay, decay and beauty. I come back. The fluffy cat licks my palm, purrs so sweetly and the fire flares bright on the saw-mill turret by the lake. Only the cry of a stork landing on the roof occasionally breaks the silence. If you knock on my door I may not even hear.
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