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Ten things that make me happy (We're celebrating despite this week being an extremely crappy week because the fact that I can tell that it's a crappy week means I've already had happier, better ones. Things like that are celebratory enough):
1. Reading good books
2. My own personal spirit team. In this age of listlessness and general uncertainty, it's so easy to give up on everything you once wanted or thought you needed. It's easy to convince yourself that you are not good at it, that the journey is long and hard, and that all signs point to the exit door. But while it's so easy to give up on yourself, it's not so easy to let friends and family down especially when they believe in you, when they see something in you that you don't see yourself. With that, you try harder even if you don't want to anymore. You begin to become more resilient. And the fruits of resilience, as we all know, is just magnificent.
3. Tequila Rose margaritas and/or Strawberry flavored Grand Margaritas
4. Grey's Anatomy and Happy Endings, but mostly Derek Shepherd and all that hair. (A close runner-up would be Teddy Altman and her chiseled cheekbones accentuated by her big, goddess of a hair)
5. Stamps on my passport because there is nothing more spectacular than the pleasure of leaving
6. Movies that remind me of my childhood like Matilda and Little Rascals
7. Long conversations over coffee
8. Humility and generosity from accomplished people because there is a certain, almost Nirvana-like sense of security that only success (or an extremely well-rounded and healthy personality) can bring. There is nothing more humbling or inspiring than seeing someone so successful rise above it all, while other people scramble around for whatever it is they're looking for. Speaking of accomplished people, I love this Foreign Policy article on Condoleezza Rice and this foreign policy heavy transcript of Madame Secretary's interview with TIME (not that they fit what I just wrote but I multi-task, so.)
9. Fun (fictional) stories like New York's 20 Under 10 from Thought Catalog
10. The chance to feel and the chance to start all over again. Down days are temporary. Emotions are temporary. Voluminous amounts of sadness, anger, and depression come and go so it's okay to fight them and it's perfectly alright to feel them. It's okay to be sad, broken, and moody because these feelings are not permanent. We don't have to be happy all the time and when we feel less than stellar, that only means that after the dark and twisty days, we're going to run into happiness once again.
I think happiness is hard work. It is impossible to be happy all the time and to feel that everything is fine and dandy, especially in a world where disappointment management is routine. Life can sometimes feel like a confusing cycle of all things shitty and wonderful, of good luck and impeccably bad timing, of love and loss and the good can sometimes feel incommensurate with the bad. That doesn't mean that we have to stop working for what makes us happy, though. And to work for your happiness means feeling both sadness and glee to a fault, to push yourself into finding something hopeful amidst the bad: when you fail a test you wanted to ace, when friends say something that sting, when friends suddenly turn into strangers, when there is just too much going on yet you feel like it's all going nowhere, when you are sick, when you don't see eye to eye with your parents, when the general feeling of listlessness suddenly overwhelms you, when life isn't just as peachy as you planned it to be three years ago, when you don't feel like you will ever be enough, when you feel like you're being left behind, when you feel stuck, when you miss the people who are far away or those who are gone forever, when you feel like your whole world is held up by a thread that will snap one day soon, so that you can discern for yourself what is the real balance of happy and sad and how you gain something for anything and everything that you lack.
And when you do, when the dust settles back into the ground and you finally go back to all that is good and fantastic, tell the whole world about it. Truth be told, we could all use a little jolt of something bright. We all love a promise to a happy ending. Smile. The dog days are over or at least they will be, very soon. All will be well.
4. White Nights - Oh Land
3. Tequila Rose margaritas and/or Strawberry flavored Grand Margaritas
4. Grey's Anatomy and Happy Endings, but mostly Derek Shepherd and all that hair. (A close runner-up would be Teddy Altman and her chiseled cheekbones accentuated by her big, goddess of a hair)
5. Stamps on my passport because there is nothing more spectacular than the pleasure of leaving
6. Movies that remind me of my childhood like Matilda and Little Rascals
7. Long conversations over coffee
8. Humility and generosity from accomplished people because there is a certain, almost Nirvana-like sense of security that only success (or an extremely well-rounded and healthy personality) can bring. There is nothing more humbling or inspiring than seeing someone so successful rise above it all, while other people scramble around for whatever it is they're looking for. Speaking of accomplished people, I love this Foreign Policy article on Condoleezza Rice and this foreign policy heavy transcript of Madame Secretary's interview with TIME (not that they fit what I just wrote but I multi-task, so.)
9. Fun (fictional) stories like New York's 20 Under 10 from Thought Catalog
10. The chance to feel and the chance to start all over again. Down days are temporary. Emotions are temporary. Voluminous amounts of sadness, anger, and depression come and go so it's okay to fight them and it's perfectly alright to feel them. It's okay to be sad, broken, and moody because these feelings are not permanent. We don't have to be happy all the time and when we feel less than stellar, that only means that after the dark and twisty days, we're going to run into happiness once again.
I think happiness is hard work. It is impossible to be happy all the time and to feel that everything is fine and dandy, especially in a world where disappointment management is routine. Life can sometimes feel like a confusing cycle of all things shitty and wonderful, of good luck and impeccably bad timing, of love and loss and the good can sometimes feel incommensurate with the bad. That doesn't mean that we have to stop working for what makes us happy, though. And to work for your happiness means feeling both sadness and glee to a fault, to push yourself into finding something hopeful amidst the bad: when you fail a test you wanted to ace, when friends say something that sting, when friends suddenly turn into strangers, when there is just too much going on yet you feel like it's all going nowhere, when you are sick, when you don't see eye to eye with your parents, when the general feeling of listlessness suddenly overwhelms you, when life isn't just as peachy as you planned it to be three years ago, when you don't feel like you will ever be enough, when you feel like you're being left behind, when you feel stuck, when you miss the people who are far away or those who are gone forever, when you feel like your whole world is held up by a thread that will snap one day soon, so that you can discern for yourself what is the real balance of happy and sad and how you gain something for anything and everything that you lack.
And when you do, when the dust settles back into the ground and you finally go back to all that is good and fantastic, tell the whole world about it. Truth be told, we could all use a little jolt of something bright. We all love a promise to a happy ending. Smile. The dog days are over or at least they will be, very soon. All will be well.
Let me leave you with a short list of songs that I listen to whenever I feel less than stellar:
Happiness hit her like a train on a track, coming towards her stuck, still no turning back
You know the ills of this world they can get you down but then you get back up
Got to remember to fight off the darkness that comes in, sometimes
Turn that sorrow into something that feels right
There's a restlessness in me, keeps me up until the dawn
There is no silence, I will keep following the sirens
When life tries to knock all the wind out of you, you've got to roll, roll, roll with the punches
If all life offers is black and blue, you've got to roll, roll, roll with the punches
Let's get backwards, and forget our restless destination
Let's live in the moment just in time, could we?
Something good can work and it can work for you, and you know that it will
Let's get this started girl, we're moving up, we're moving up
It's been a lot to change but you will always get what you want
and my personal favorite...
Let's dance to joy division, and celebrate the irony
Everything is going wrong, but we're so happy
Let's dance to joy division, and raise our glass to the ceiling
Cos this could all go so wrong, but we're so happy
