Do You Want To Be Happy

 11th Dec 2021

Do You Want To Be Happy?

We all want to be happy, don’t we? But what makes us happy?

There are many suggestions out there, many ideas that are bandied about on this subject.

When I’ve asked family and friends, almost without exception they talk about things like more money, a bigger house, a different job/career, a person who loved them, a fancy car, expensive clothes/holidays/jewels, power, fame, status, etc etc…

But do any of those things, any of that “stuff” actually make us happy?

If we stay with the theory for a minute that riches equate to happiness and if we take the risk of making the suggestion that suicide is a sign of deep unhappiness, surely poorer people in deprived countries would be more likely to end their misery. But no, the US has, supposedly, the highest suicide rate in the world with many being among the wealthy.

No, stuff doesn’t make us happy.

So, what does?

I believe it comes down to a decision that we can all make.

Being grateful, for what we do have. “I have woken up today, to a new day, thanks be to God!” There are many things, even in this tough life, that we can be thankful for. The homeless man, outside Victoria Station said it made him so happy that I stopped to talk to him.

A friend, a carer, tells the story of an elderly woman she accompanied to her new nursing home. This woman had to give up living at home and move over fifty miles away. My friend was very fond of her and felt sorry for her, thinking how lonely her life was going to be. She thought the old lady would find the whole event quite traumatic. She was surprised to observe that on the journey, dear Gladys looked out of the window with a smile on her face. Her cheerfulness remained as they took the lift up five flights of stairs to her room. My friend opened the door and was shocked to see how small the room was and also how miserable it looked with hardly any light coming in. The curtains were shabby. She wiped a tear from her eye.

Then, Gladys edged by her and entered the room herself. After gently walking walked around the room, she turned to my friend with a beaming smile and said,

“I love it. Thank you my dear. It’s beautiful. I’m going to be very happy here.” My friend was taken aback and said,

“But, Gladys, you are blind, how do you know it’s beautiful?” Not letting on, of course that it wasn’t all that special. Gladys replied,

“Oh, my dear, I made that decision before we came. It’s what I do every day. I wake up and decide, today I will be happy. And I am. I’m sure everything looks wonderful.”

I think Gladys has a point.

We have the power to make ourselves happy.

Without knowing it, Gladys was giving back. My friend was so impressed by the attitude of Gladys, that she found herself able to make the decision to be happy, even in difficult times. At the time she took Gladys to her new home, she was trying to change her job. She’d become fed up with caring and thought she deserved more. Now, she goes to work with joy in her heart, and a smile on her face, knowing that she can make a difference to others, in small ways.

If I decide to be happy I will laugh more,

Have good relationships with Family and friends,

Enjoy time alone to ponder

Do more things that I love

Find myself having time for others

Love myself by eating well and getting enough exercise.

Go on, give it a try yourself,

Decide to,

BE HAPPY