Feels of Happy

Feels like relief.

Feels like power.

Feels like freedom.

Feels like appreciation.

Feels like awe.

Feels like knowing.

Feels like love.

Feels like evolution.

"BE HAPPY IN THE NOW OR KNOW NOT HAPPINESS"

I didn't really know what the words meant, but it felt true in the writing of it. I painted it on my "hippy" van after finding myself living in it, with my Twin, our two cats and our (at the time) recently deceased Grandpa's toy poodle dog; panhandling in the winter cold of Colorado... no direction but the desire to enjoy life any way we could.

Enjoyment became synonymous with gratitude and appreciation.

The cold nights were best when appreciating the warm cuddles of our critters. The powerfully potent disapproval and sometimes hate of strangers was best heard and endured when focusing on the feelings of gratitude and sometimes awe of those giving to answer my call for help. The showerless weeks were best when laughing about smelling like pack, as in our animal family. The immobilizing snow was best when indulging in a chance walk about with my cat—who wasn’t the least bit deterred by any of it.

Having to walk across icy parking lots, and spend spare change to be patrons, for the use of indoor plumbing to go to the bathroom, was best when appreciating the chance to stretch our legs, to have fresh fruit for breakfast, to warm up indoors, to sit on a toilet to pee…

The better we felt being ourselves in that state of transition we considered ourselves to be in, the easier it seemed to be to run/walk/drive right into the opportunities we were seeking, needing, wanting to evolve from where we were.

I started to make sense of those words that seemed to pop right out of my soul to answer the question I’d been asking for so long…

How do I become a happy person?

The words meant choosing the better thoughts… choosing appreciation over degradation or depreciation.

It meant… if I couldn’t find a way to be happy with “nothing” then I’d never understand what it meant to be happy.

Since that moment of understanding, I’ve been practicing my appreciation even in the doing of dishes, laundry, cooking, and grocery shopping, for doing these things means having these things.

So.. if you REALLY want to know what Happiness feels like.. start by learning how to appreciate everything you can. Learn how to feel appreciative of even “bad” things in your life and it’s a quick road to feeling the happiness that follows.

Happiness doesn't happen without appreciation. If you're lacking happiness, you're lacking appreciation.

another_proser