A toast to happiness.
The bracelet, a Christmas gift from my mother, has the phrase, “Choose happiness” stamped into it.
It is always a choice. All of it. Happiness, sadness, quiet, life, laughter, love, truth, anger, fear…all of it.
But to choose happiness; sometimes I think that this is the harder path. When you choose to live in your life with your eyes wide open, you see the other stuff…the ugly stuff. When you are wide open to it all, when your heart is wide open, you can be hurt. Over and over again. You feel things and understand things and notice things that others may not be willing to notice yet. When you are living in your life with your eyes wide open, you also see the beauty. The gorgeous moments. You see it all. And through it all, you have a choice. You always have a choice. This can seem so hard at times. So. very. hard. Yet, you have this choice. Which means, really, that you are on the path that is full and rich and alive. The other path, the one full of not paying attention, that is the one that is harder even though it feels easier.
And you can still choose.
To choose happiness, even in the midst of all that you know, even in the midst of the pain and the beauty...it is such an incredible choice. Full of light. Full of life.
So tonight, I raise my glass to happiness. To deciding to choose it a bit more often.
(to see other self-portraits of red visit self-portrait challenge)
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(And I want to also say this. The giving of presents is something I enjoy. I am always on the lookout for little gifts for my friends, family, people in my life. The moment when I find the “perfect” gift – the gift you know another person needs, well, that makes me so happy. And I love it when I can also be there when they open it. And I admit that I love, love it when someone gives me a gift that is so "me." But to put this note into context, I have to be honest about something: The bah humbug [whispering now…martyr] in me sometimes resents opening a gift and knowing that the person just simply didn’t take the time to think of me but instead just said, “crap, I need something.” Little do they know that for me, a hand-written note means more than another empty picture frame. I know, yes people, I know, this isn’t the spirit of gift giving, but I am willing to be honest about this. However…opening the gifts from my mom last night, especially this bracelet and a necklace she bought me…well, I just felt my heart sigh inside [in a good way]. These gifts mean so much to me. Gifts from someone who is seeing me and the path I am on. Thank you.)
