from September 12, 2018
For my senior year of high school it was required that each member of the class would have to write a speech that they would read aloud to the entire auditorium before graduation.
After a bit of long nights of staring at my ceiling deliberating a topic, I settled on a single question: why not be happy?
So often back then I was repeatedly asked why I was so cheery at all times of the day, even at the earliest class, right after my teammates and I trudged through mountains of Minnesota snow, at dawn when the landscape was black and all that lit your path was the light blue and green hue outlining the trees.
To me, the answer was simple: there was never a reason NOT to be happy.
However, as I grew older and life became seemingly more complicated, the pureness and strength of that thought has dimmed. I find myself reflecting on my past self, remembering that special lesson of joy I have forgotten.
I listened to a TED talk podcast today called “The Person You Become.” It consisted of incredible stories of a plethora of individuals who have endured the deepest of pains and discovered the light in the darkness. They spoke about how the unpredictability of life can stir the most profound lessons within our hearts. These individuals dealt with violence and loss, extreme pain and confusion, starvation and abandonment, and yet they looked at life with the most beautiful perspective. What broke them resulted in the creation of an unwavering strength, stoic in its presence.
Again, they lived by the rhetoric: why not be happy?
Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote,
“Write it on your heart that everyday is the best day in the year.”
I praise his words tonight because I think we could all use a little bit of his transcendentalist knowledge.
You see, we are all broken. Our lives are messy, they are angering, and they can suck the marrow from our bones, feeding on every ounce of happiness we thought we had, until we are left feeling like a skeleton version of ourselves.
But guess what? Only you have the power to find the positivity in the storm.
Stop feeling sorry for yourself. The pity is over. Look around you–this world is beyond breathtaking. Find happiness in the little things. Hold onto them, grasp them tightly and let them seep into your soul, drip by drip.
The flutter of your heart when the person you love pulls you closer at night, or when you’re belting to Kenny Chesney songs with your best friends, beers in hand, watching Sunday night football. A hug from your sibling or your mother–the kind that engulfs you, mending all your scars, even if for a brief moment. The laughter of a child. The sip of warm coffee in the morning. A smile from a stranger.
Happiness isn’t a destination. It is within the journey, within the messy parts. Take time to find it. Life is much simpler than you think.
Until next time,
Baylee
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