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I pretty much feel like one of my perennials bursting through the cold, hard ground. It’s been dark for many months, but I have taken care of my roots. Now it’s time to see how much I can grow after all this fertilizing and resting.

I’m ready to burst past limitations. I’m ready to burst past other plants around me who want to stay the same. I’m ready to rise as high as I can to feel the sun on my body as I unfold more and more.

There’s an urgency in me right now, one that’s driving me past all the old darkness and coldness to fresh air and more space. Expansion. Yes, expansion. I can’t wait to see where it’s going, but I know there’s only one direction I am going and that’s up.

Sure, I don’t mind a little healthy pruning, but this plant, this new me is ready to burst out.

Happiness is bursting out.

Today the bursting out came in speaking my truth to someone trying to trample on me and my desire for growth. She told me to wait to pursue my dreams, the one I have been doggedly pursuing for some time now. I told her that if I had taken that advice I would never had quit my old successful career to publish books as a writer. Playing it safe isn’t my nature. I am radical that way perhaps, but I have to follow the call in my soul.

What is the call in your soul right now? Are you bursting out into something? Don’t worry if you don’t know what. I’m still not sure where it’s all going to go either.

But just remember what I do. It’s only going to lead to one thing. More time in the beautiful, magical sunlight. And that thought keeps me going. It makes me happy because I know I am going to get there. I plan to enjoy the climb.

 

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My niece’s pigtails were uneven today when I saw her. Even my brother commented on it, saying he needed to do them again. They just weren’t even. Drew attention to them rather than her sweet, smiling, drooling face. Her head looked off -balance, almost like she was listing to the right.

Sometimes we feel like that. A little uneven. A little off center. I tweaked my back this week, and everything has felt like that. Actions I used to take without a thought like getting out of bed have become a hardship. Pain has become a teacher, and I reluctantly bid him welcome again.

Sometimes we need take break down before we can be re-knit into a higher version of our selves.

Happiness is unraveling.

This is the time when we hold onto the promise of happiness, the knowing that if we just take a the time to unravel those uneven pigtails and redo them again, so to speak, then we’re going to be better off. We’re going to be happier.

When we are uneven and unbalanced, we simply aren’t happy, are we? We can’t be. It’s not how we are made.

So, I let myself unravel more. Slow down. Give more attention to what my body and heart are telling me. I rest. I listen.

And when it’s time, I start braiding the pieces back together again, this time with more clarity, with more attention.

When I am finished, I’ll be happier than I imagined.

What needs to unravel for you right now?

 

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Recently I wrote about going after your dreams once again when you didn’t achieve them the first or second time. Well, I made another go at mine this past weekend, and I have to tell you: I didn’t reach them.

Sure, there were other wonderful moments. New people encountered. Signs that I am on the right path. Encouragement to keep going. And I will…

But.

It’s time to surrender.

I’m learning, albeit slowly, how to keep moving forward while surrendering the situation. It sometimes seems like I’m living in a cloud as I attempt to keep my feet on the ground I know while my head is filled with this imagined reality.

So, it hasn’t happened yet. I don’t know how it’s going to happen. I just know it will.

The burning in our hearts for our dreams is a sign we are on the right track. Perhaps the puzzle pieces haven’t lined up. Heck, some of the puzzle pieces may not have arrived yet. But it’s coming together.

Right now though it’s about surrendering it once again. Being willing to hand the pieces I have in my fist that don’t fit right now to something bigger, someone bigger than my human self.

Have you ever felt the same?

Surrendering is a tough term for me. It used to mean a powerless state. Now I see it as the place I come to when I have to trust there’s something more guiding me, which I believe. I can’t do it all myself, even though I sometimes forget that. I have to surrender to something more to bring my dreams about.

How do you feel about surrender? What does it look like for you? Is there something you need to surrender, even for a time? Join me. Let’s see what happens.

Right now it’s the only happiness I see.

 

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Sometimes it’s easy to forget the building blocks of happiness. I had a wake-up call this week as I was reading Michael Singer’s book, The Untethered Soul. He talked about complaining.

Ugh. Complaining.

I realized I’d slipped back into some more passive forms of complaining. It’s so busy right now. I have so much on my plate. Can’t seem to fit it all in. I’m tired.

Fill in your own blank.

Talk about taking away the energy of happiness. I love what I do, but when I feel busy, I’m draining that joy away, leeching it with the worry of stress.

And there’s stuff in my personal life too I’ve been assigning a less than beautiful blue ribbon.

So, I decided to stop complaining—really watch how I talked inside my head (super important too) as well as to others. For thirty days.

Happiness is Taking The Thirty Day Challenge.

Why thirty days? Who not sixty? Why not a lifetime? Well, when we’re doing something like this, we need to start small. And thirty days is the time it takes the brain to (re)learn something and set a habit.

Here’s an example. When I had to take the car into the mechanic yesterday unexpectedly, I didn’t complain. I stopped the blah, blah from starting and said instead, How lucky am I to have the most wonderful, honest mechanic who will fix this for me and make things new.

Did I wince a little at the unexpected outlay? Sure. We have to be real, but I didn’t go into the blah, blah. I didn’t let it ruin my day.

I chose to remain happy—no matter what. Am I really going to let my car steal that from me? No.

Are you up to The Thirty Day Challenge? If thirty days seems like too much, start smaller and then extend it. Be patient with yourself like I am when you start the old talk. Just stop. Start over. You can always make a new choice. Then watch how more happiness you have in your daily bank, lightening your mood.

 

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It’s been over a month since I’ve written about happiness you might have noticed. The holidays brought a bad cold that lingered. Coupled with a book to finish, life became simple.

Take care of me.

Get healthy.

Write.

Happiness is taking a break.

Sometimes that’s all we can do when we’re feeling depleted or stretched. I didn’t feel lots of happiness as I was sick, let me tell you, but I was honoring where I was and not trying to force myself to be where I couldn’t be.

Things slowed down. And that’s okay. There are times when we need to take a break. I find we’ve usually spent so much of our energy with the holidays, traveling, shopping, and then managing family dynamics that we’re all pretty much spent by the time the new year rolls around.

So, this is a simple post. A footstep back to the road of bliss and joy. It’s a quiet intention.

I hope it touches your heart where you are.

A wise friend recently told me something I’ve heard (even said myself) a thousand times, but this time I really heard it. You know. The light bulb went on big time.

I’ve talked about happiness being a choice. Heck, I’ve talked about trust being a choice.

The truth is everything is a choice.

In talking about a current life lesson I was going through, my friend said I needed to decide. She’d just done a similar thing in her situation. Later I was reading some inspiring reflections, and I came across the same words. It said I need to decide what I wanted and what I didn’t want.

That evening I spent over an hour simply saying, “I decide X,” and “I choose Y.” It was empowering. I highly recommend it.

Happiness is hearing it.

I’ve grown up enough to know blaming others for something I don’t have simply isn’t the truth. I am responsible for my life and my feelings. I also know I’m not the victim of anything. I choose how I want to view my experience, how I live my life.

So, I’m keeping it simple again. Life is a matter of choice. As we crest into the new year, I can’t think of a more appropriate exercise. Choose the life you want. Review all the places you don’t feel like you’re choosing something (this is usually the junky stuff we need to let go of). I’ve made an inventory of my life, and I feel ready and able to take the next step into manifesting more of the life I truly want, the life I deserve.

Decide for yourself and let the support come in. Boldly move forward in the direction of your dreams. Claim your prize. Life is yours. It always has been and always will be. The more I change mine based on my choices, the more I realize how truly powerful we are. How absolutely limitless our possibilities.

My oldest friend from high school and college says she simply can’t believe how much I have changed since I was that fourteen-year-old girl she first met.

Anything is possible.

Choose possible.

I am.

 

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