Happiness!

"The summit of happiness is reached when a person is ready to be what he is."  Desidirius Erasmus

I'm a total quote junkie and even have a "quote a day" gadget on my homepage.  I have been pondering happiness quite a bit this past year.  When I stumbled upon this quote today it truly summed it up for me.  We are always on this great quest for happiness in our lives.  I often wonder why?  I have met so many people this past year who for whatever reason were not happy.  I would have to include myself in that pot of people for a while myself.  I think overall when one is not happy it's because we are becoming self absorbed and self centered.  Think about it, a happy person is more often than not, a very giving person with no strings attached.

  

An unhappy person is a pessimistic person who has the "woe is me" and "my life sucks attitude" and they look for other people and things to blame.  Well I say enough of that!!  We are in full control of our own happiness.  I just think of my cousin Terry who is awaiting a kidney transplant and he has to be one of the most optimistic people I know.  He doesn't have a job, has a beautiful wife and 3 great kids and through it all he still has his sense of humor.  He does not have the "woe is me" attitude but quite the opposite.  So what has become of his optimism?  People are taking care of him and they have given of themselves to him just like he has for the past 40 something years to them.  Optimistic and happy people tend to draw people to them like giant magnets.

My New Year's resolution (well one of the many...lol) is to make sure I'm being optimistic and that starts by choosing to be around optimistic people. It all starts by living in the moment and not worrying about the past or the future. Just by starting to look at what we all have instead of what we don't have is a huge step to being happy and content.  I'm very grateful for what I have in my life:  excellent family, wonderful friends dotted around the world, 3 beautiful (and busy) daughters, a great house and an awesome husband who puts up with a lot from this fiery redhead.  We all should try and be happy with who we are instead of trying to be something else.

Cheers....here's to happiness for 2011.