A few years ago, I made a life-changing decision: To be happy.
Back then, we were going through a pretty rough time. I was stressed, depressed, and exhausted. All the time. There’s no need to explain why, since so many other folks have gone through worse. Instead, I’ll just summarize our situation by calling it an avalanche of crap storms hitting us from all directions with no signs of easing up.
But one day it hit me: if I didn’t figure out a way to be happy despite the storms … I might never be happy. And those years spent being stressed, depressed, and exhausted? They’d be gone and being miserable didn’t help or change things one bit.
So I might as well be happy.
Thus, my big, life-changing decision: I was going to be happy regardless of the crap storms. Yeah, I know, this isn’t an epic new discovery, but to me, it was everything. And no, it didn’t make those storms go away and now, we have a fresh new crop to deal with, but they sure are easier to handle with a positive mindset. And years from now, when our storms are a distant memory, I’ll have a stockpile of wonderful, happy memories from enjoying life in the meanwhile.
And besides. Crap storms make for great book material.
For these reasons, I absolutely love the speech my great-aunt Anna Mae gave at her 100th birthday party last April. What an amazing blessing, living such a long and full life! And a great reminder for me to always Keep a Happy Face despite the hard times!
