Finding and choosing happiness

At my sister-in-law’s house, she has a painting that says, “We tend to seek happiness when happiness is actually a choice.” (I’ve mentioned this before, but I finally found where I wrote down the quote.)

I think that happiness and fulfillment have that in common—we think we’ll find these things and voilà—we’ll be set for life. Fulfillment and happiness do seem to go hand in hand. But for both of them, it is in the end a choice. To feel happy or fulfilled, we have to choose to be, not just seek them and wait for them to be bestowed upon us.

Granted, it’s also not just as easy as deciding “Yeah, I’m going to be happy now” or “Yeah, I’m going to be fulfilled now.” It’s something that we have to recapture every day. I think it’s like a Harold B. Lee quotation about personal testimonies: “Testimony isn’t something you have today, and you are going to have always. A testimony is fragile. It is as hard to hold as a moonbeam. It is something you have to recapture every day of your life.”

So I’ve tried to recapture that happiness every day by focusing on the times and actions that do make me think I wouldn’t give this up for anything. Times like Hayden voluntarily walking into Rebecca’s room as she’s struggling to fall asleep and singing her to sleep; Rebecca craning her neck just to catch a glimpse of me; Hayden asking to snuggle with me; Rebecca’s delighted squeals.

I choose to find happiness every day in the little things, and I hope that by choosing happiness, I’m choosing fulfillment, too.

For the Choosing Happiness Group Writing Project—accepting submissions until midnight tonight!