ruts

So I feel as though I've slipped and fallen off the Happiness Wagon.  


Perhaps it hit a rut.


Most likely I have.


They say, all work and no play make for a very cranky day, and most moms know, it's completely true.  I work.  I cook.  I do laundry.  I taxi.  I ....I....I.


I'm trying to get out of this rut, and even noticing the rut has to count for something, but life is taking over my happiness and it just makes me wonder, at what point does life become happiness?  This is the essence of Be Happy.  Knowing that you are already happy, and just pushing it away because you get something out of being unhappy.  We spend so much time trying to find our way to happiness instead of just letting it be.  We (and when I say we, I mean me) feel like something has to be achieved, bought, or done in order for happiness to settle.  

It's all a big lie.  


Happiness just is, whether we recognize it or not.  It's with us all the time, and most of the time we just ignore it.


Which leads me to my happiness project.  Life is too short not to be happy, no matter what.  Most likely we will still have our jobs and bills 5, 10 years from now, so we might as well learn to make peace and find a way to accept it.  


The only way to get out of a rut is to do something different... over and over again.  It's not easy, but I am going to try and figure this thing out.  Is there really any other choice?

Happy

It dawned on me last night as I was reading my happy book, that I had stopped writing about the words in my blog.  I had started this because I truly believe that when we live our lives according to certain words, our lives change for the better (or worse, depending on your words).  For instance, when we try to go through our day with strength on the brain, we might make different choices.  Some people need calm while others might need a dose of energy.  All of the words mean something different to everyone and that's what is so perfect about it.  The words are yours to live.  


Let me repeat that:  

The words are yours to live.

How could I have forgotten this?  Told y'all I was lost.  Well, I'm back and working on the word happy at the moment.  I lost happy too somewhere along the path, and I have been on a search for it the past two weeks (see below).  

What I have learned that it was never really gone, but that I just have a knack for finding all the crap in life to worry and stress about.  Somewhere along the path, I stopped looking at the flowers and could only see the weeds.  And I hate weeds.

So my word today, and every day, is happy.  I will leave you with this since I think it sums it up pretty darn good.

Have a happy day.

Friday Reads

Good Morning!

For some reason, I am up with the chickens this morning and wanting to write.  And when that happens, I don't ask why, it's best to just go with it.  When God gives you time to write, you take it, no questions asked.

So last Friday I posted on here the book Be Happy, and I'm happy to say that I still love it.  It wasn't a one-chapter wonder like many self-help books are, and I have found the exercises in it profound.  This one is the real deal, and even though I am still reading and learning, I am going to move onto another book this week because fiction is a callin'!  What?  You've never read two books at once and kept up with the new Fall line up of shows?  

This week I am starting Lost and Found by Jacqueline Sheehan.  After searching for hours for a new book, I finally found this one.  I have to admit that I read the reviews much more than I ever used to, and everyone seemed to love this story.  I haven't started it yet (again, catching up on Fall programming is killing me), but I do know this Buddy-look alike is one of the main characters.  Plus, I have been lost for about a month now, and would like to be found myself.  


Win-win.


I hope you all have a Fabulous Friday!

Friday Reads

Yes, I am aware that if this were a true column, I'd probably be fired by now.  As much as I was looking forward to Fall and the change of schedules, I am not as good at transitioning as I used to be.  Mornings are busy, nights are busy, and I am somewhere lost in between.  Lost being the operative word here.

I've been here before, written about it many times, and know that some of you are on this island with me.  And like the fictional TV show Lost, this island will haunt you till you think you're losing your mind.  Just between you and me though, I'm really hoping we're not all dead and this is limbo.  That would totally suck.

Anyhoo, reading is really not my favorite thing to do when I'm here.  I'm too distracted thinking "poor me" thoughts to focus on anything good, so when I came across a book called Be Happy  by Robert Holden last weekend, I thought what the hell?

I'm only about a quarter of the way through it, and almost gave up on it till this morning when I got to Chapter 6, A Tale of Two Selves.  Now I'm hooked and starting to see that there might be a light at the end of the tunnel.  Granted, it's a long tunnel in that this is supposed to be an "8-week course," but I am finding that this might be the rope to pull me out of my apathetic, self-destructive ways.

So, if you're feeling a little lost like I am, get yourself a copy and follow along with me.  Life is too short to be lost on a lonely, twisted island with nothing good to read.  Join me, won't you?