“Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude.” This quote by Denis Waitley really struck a chord with me the other day.
It’s amazing how many days pass where we are just thinking of what is coming in the future. We are constantly telling ourselves that if we get past this week, this month, this big project, this exam, then we will be okay. Then we will feel accomplished, or feel something, anything that will make the struggle worthwhile. But what happens to of all these days crammed between our accomplishments? I’m convinced this is how unhappiness slowly starts to creep into people’s lives. They have all of these prized milestones – the grades, the relationship, the job, whatever they desire most, but something still feels missing.
What’s missing are the empty days and in-between seasons of life that fade into the background of people who don’t live every moment of their lives with this love, grace, and gratitude that Waitley so beautifully captured. When you are constantly focused on the next big thing, the latest gossip, or what other people think – you are giving up moments that have significance to you. Do you ever wonder why childhood memories are usually some of our favorites? I think that the fact that we were oblivious to the world around us made us untouchable. We treated every day like it was an adventure no matter what we were doing. Going to the grocery store or going to Disney World, we treated both with open minds, curiosity, and wonder. The sad thing is that most people think that this state of mind leaves when you exit elementary school, but it’s all in how you see the world.
So often we are caught up in taking photos to post on social media, buying clothes and other things to wear out, and doing other meaningless things with the sole purpose to impress others. Isn’t it funny how we want people to like us so badly, but so many of us are too afraid to even smile or interact with the people who we want to impress? So how about instead of extra moments making sure our hair is perfect before we walk out of the door, we spend a couple seconds saying hello to an old friend or breaking for the person standing outside in the rain at a crosswalk. These are the moments that will leave us with a sweet aftertaste at the end of the day instead of the bitterness of blurred moments that went without the appreciation that they deserve.
