It had been so long since I had been happy that I forgot what it felt like. Sitting at my desk, listening to audio tapes on positive thinking, they all talked about being happy as the key. The problem is that I forgot what that felt like. OH I knew what it felt like to be satisfied, what it felt like to see the joy in the clouds in the sky, how loving it felt when I looked into my Partners face as she slept but I had forgotten what it felt like to be happy. Just Happy, pure, simple, no holds barred, whole body and soul happy. I had felt Happy before so I knew that what was being felt was not happy, it was joy or any one of the variations of Happy but it was not Happy. Sometimes it came so very close but still it was not Happy, just Happy.
Over the past quarter of a Century there have been moments of Happy but for some reason they were not loved enough so I forgot to take a snap shot in my brain so I could remember what it felt like and get back to it when it was lost again. Those moments of Happy in my past feel like the smoke from a camp fire, only there as long as the wood was being put to flame and gone with the smoke when the wood was all used up. Somehow I had taken those moments for granted and forgotten to take a snapshot of that emotion, that feeling, rather than just the surroundings while the miracle happened.
The current focus of our mental activities has been on Love and the decision reached that there is only Love and anything that is not this is simply a lack of it. We have decided that like Happy, Love is a tangible thing which lives and breathes. Love and Happy can be acquired but they can also be lost if not appreciated enough to take those mental snap shots then refuse any less emotion in our lives. Because we believe that Love and Happy are friends then one must always be fairly close to the other and will only be seen if the other is present. Like best friends, where one is the other is close.
The problem was that I had forgotten what Happy looked like, how Happy felt and how to just give into the emotion with a child like abandonment. Perhaps I had also forgotten exactly what Love was and how it is not about getting, it is about giving and we can never out give Love. Out giving Love can never happen because if another does not give it back then it is not Love, it is a variation of a lack of it. In the giving we are Love, it is not outside of ourselves, we are LOVE and Love is not dependent on anything other than itself. We have a choice to either Love others with a lack of it anyway. The understanding/wisdom must be that we can not force Love in any of its various forms onto another because Love is Freedom to choose and the other will either choose to return it or they will not. Love will not stay with us as an active part of our mental make up if we choose to allow others to give us less than the Love we are giving. If we become one with Love it does not matter because we are no longer dependent upon another for it. One caution here though is that Love is the most amazing thing of all in that when we only see the good in another regardless of what they are doing then Love grows or the other leaves because they are free to choose a lack of Love if that is what is wanted. Love is not dependent upon any other person or thing though it is its own entity whole and complete for each of us to feel.
Yesterday I went to the store for a few things. While there I saw 'Curly's pulled pork' in the refrigerator case. I was surprised to see it as Curly's Barbecue sauce is simply my very favorite. They did not sell it in the stores here and I had missed it sorely. After the surprise, I picked up the container and joy began filling me.
I let the joy come. Then I wondered if it were indeed MY Curly's or another brand with the same name so bought the container and brought it home with a fresh package of hamburger buns. Bouncing into the door, I hurried to open the packages containing the purchases to show my Partner who was getting excited because now my feet could no longer stay still and danced their way across the floor while excitedly exclaiming.... "you will never believe what I brought home!" Then I rushed to open the package, put a portion in the microwave and made a sandwich. I bit down into the mouth watering sandwich and my taste buds began to dance. I do mean each and every one of my 10,000 taste buds began to do the Hallelujah chorus. My mouth began to laugh. I laughed so hard with the Happiness of this thing that my jaws began to cramp (its been a while so those muscles are out of practice). So this is what Happy feels like? Snap, Snap, Snap went my brain taking as many mental pictures as possible this time.
I hurried to the phone and called the corporate office of the store to thank them, then I sent an e mail thanking them, then I called Curly's thanking them then............. my Partner and I went back to the store and bought three more containers for the freezer. With every communication people laughed with me and they were happy too.
As we left to go back to the store for more of this magical stuff that made my whole body and soul remember what Happy felt like, we saw our neighbor. Larry was curious as to why I was dancing, it seemed like I was floating rather than walking in pure Happiness. I explained what had happened to him and even in the middle of it I doubled over needing to get my breath because of the laughter and complete happiness over this event. He looked at my Partner and said, "she gets a little excited, doesn't she?" In two years he has never seen me HAPPY so it was not only a joy but also a surprise for him. For just a moment we were able to remind him what Happy feels like. When we returned from the store, I made him a Curly's BBQ sandwich and took it to him so he could experience why I was so very happy and share this with him.
The Curly's BBQ did not make me happy, this I need to try to make someone understand. It was that I LOVE Curly's BBQ and when reunited with it, Loves friend HAPPY came out to join me. At that very moment there was a choice because Love is freedom. I could either choose to completely succumb to Happy or I could resist it but I needed to remember what Happy felt like so I choose to abandon every normal, adult like, rational reaction and just be Happy.
Now that I remember what this feels like, I will make it a goal to get back to Happy every time I lose it even if it is a million times a day. I know what Happy is and that is where I want to be. I also know that Happy and Love are friends so to get to one, I simply need to do the other. I want my best friends to be Love and Happy. I am free to make this choice regardless of what any other chooses as their own personal choice in life. I will never be able to be down enough to help pull another out of the pits of despair but perhaps if maybe just maybe someone else who needs to remember can see it (through me) they will grab onto the rope and be pulled up into Love which will always be close to Happy. Where ever one is, the other will be very close by.