Find the Happiness!

I’m often asked where I get my writing ideas. To tell the truth it’s not always easy, they come from all over, but most of the time they come from the people around me. This week I had a conversation with a friend of mine and was truly inspired to share it with you. In order for you to understand, I need to give you a little bit of her background.

I was talking to her on the phone the other day and she explained everything she was going through. I was shocked. Her life has been challenging lately to say the least. Here’s the abbreviated version.

In addition to normal life craziness, her husband has brain cancer and needs treatment. Of course, he can’t work so she is their only income right now and because of the economy, her job is in trouble and she had to take a pay cut in order to keep it. She was already struggling to pay the bills and keep their home before her pay got cut so life is tough for her right now.

Of course, I offered to help in any way I could and asked what she needed. Then she really shocked me. She said, “Nothing.”

I wasn’t convinced, but she insisted. She explained how they were managing and how grateful she was that it wasn’t worse. She said that sometimes bad things happen and you just have to deal with it. She said they were focusing on the good things and counting their blessings.

WOW! How often do you hear that? I was impressed and I told her. Most people would be immobilized by everything she was dealing with.

Then she said the most AMAZING THING. I will never forget it. She said, “Well, life happens sometimes, but there’s always happiness. You just have to find it.”

I know, I know. It got to me too. I told you I was inspired.

So often we wander through life complaining about our family, our jobs, our friends, our country. We don’t make enough money. We’re overtaxed and underpaid. No one appreciates us and the whole world is out to get us. We’re so focused on “our problems” that we forget to find the happiness.

The thing about problems is how difficult they are depends on your perspective. If you’ve never had to deal with much, not getting what you want seems like a big problem. If you’ve been through a lot of trials and tribulations, some of those small things don’t seem to matter as much.

As we wander around feeling sorry for ourselves, thinking about “our big problem”… whatever it is… maybe it’s our spouse or our children. We don’t like our job or some other aspect of our lives. We’re just focused on how miserable we are.

Then we get a real problem. Someone gets sick or we lose a family member. Maybe we lose our job and are about to lose our home. All the other stuff seems silly. It’s then that we begin to cherish each moment and appreciate our lives. We “find the happiness”.

So the next time you’re focused on the negative or what appears to be a problem, look at it from the other perspective. What good can come from this? Where is the happiness? Can it be worse? I guarantee that it can. In fact, there are people in the world that would LOVE to have your “big” problem.

Remember even when life is bad, that everyone goes through tough times; you can still find the happiness. You just have to look.