Happiness

As I look around at the people in my life I wonder sometimes if they are truly happy. I know that for most of us it is impossible to be happy all the time. We all have to deal with life and all that it throws at us. We put on our smile and pretend that we are. When we greet one another with the casual" how are you doing?" We usually get the standard I'm good or occasional great. We rarely get the truth. Why is it everybody wants to pretend to be happy. If we had the ability to make every person happy, what would it take?
    It's such a complicated proposal. What makes you happy might not have the same results for me. Everyone is different.  Just for an example, let's say you have ten people in a room, try to adjust the thermostat for all to be comfortable. It's almost impossible. We are all different and to please or make everyone happy at once is impossible. I'm not saying we shouldn't try, I'm just saying some times it is like beating your head against a wall. 
   Now to the nuts and bolts of where I was going with this. Being a parent of three great girls and watching them grow up I saw firsthand three distinct personalities. While there were those among the three who needed a little more direction, I had to let them grow into the lovely ladies they are today. I had to let them through trial and error decide what made them happy. I would protect them from what I felt was harmful and did not in any way promote happiness. I let them to a degree make life choices I felt they could handle.  Some were a little better at making choices than others but we have all been there.  What I saw was this. What made one happy was not necessarily the case for the other two.  There was not a manual it was all trial and error. They were given spiritual guidance as well earthly  and in the end it was up to them to find their path to true happiness.
    Looking back at my childhood my parents did the same. They protected me but let me slowly become who I am today. I truly think that the first step in happiness is being happy with yourself.  I know that a spiritual relationship with God helps me to see that I'm a imperfect person and his love can make me happy and and positive but I'm talking on an earthly level.  If you are not happy with who you are you spend a lot of time trying to fill a void with other things, some possibly harmful to you. Maybe you try to find someone to make you happy. Either way its not good. You need to be happy with the person you are
God created each of us different and you were made to compliment someone and you will find that someone if you are patient. We have to realize that being in a perfect relationship is great and that awesome career is great but does it truly bring happiness?  What is happiness? It is something hard to explain. Is it the euphoria you feel when you fall in love or when life is going great? Those feelings give way over time.  Is it waking up in the morning and putting your feet on the floor? There are those that aren't that fortunate to put their feet on the floor yet are happy. Is it our career accomplishments? There are a lot of successful people depressed.  I'm sure if you ask most people what would make them happy it would be, love or money.  Those are great in context but once again I'm not sure that they are an answer. 
     I'm sure if we take a good hard look at what we have in our lives we could find a reason for happiness. I think more than ever especially in the social media age we often see others and the lifestyle they project and we become dissatisfied. As we draw closer to another Christmas  celebration let's take some time to reflect on all we have and less on what we don't. Stop complaining and work to fix our situation. If you want true happiness it starts with you
Kenney Pope