Choosing Happiness

 I have been a bit under the weather, and not posting much. So I decided to share this piece that I posted on Storylane. I hope to be on more very soon. Thanks for hanging in with me.

I am an old woman now. Living in, as people used to day, "reduced circumstances", meaning there is always more month than there is money. The love of my life is gone. My children are grown, with homes and families of their own. My companions are my beloved "furbabies". My health is deteriorating, with new issues popping up on a regular basis. I do not leave my home often these days, and rarely venture further than the tiny nearby town. Yet, I am happy, content, ready to greet each day with a smile, rejoicing in the sunshine or the rain. Delighting in the smell of my morning coffee, eager to talk to my daughters when they call to tell see how I am, and to tell me they love me. Laughing at the antics of my silly cats, going through my daily chores with a song in my heart and on my lips, although these days, the voice cracks.
I moved here after I retired, and I do not actually have any friends around here. Which is a surprise to me, as I have always been surrounded by friends. I grew up in a  military family, married into the military, and have lived so many places, and I always quickly made friends, became involved in the community, and made a home wherever I happened to be. Here, it is different. In this rural area of the Ozarks, people are very nice, very warm and kind. But they do not "take" to outsiders. And an outsider is anyone whose family has not lived here for generations. So, it can be lonely.
Yet, I am happy. Why, you ask? Because I choose to be. Because happiness is a choice. Nobody is happy all the time. One is ill, the bills are overdue, there are family problems, the roof leaks. There is always a reason, an excuse really, for not being happy. I believe it is a matter of perspective. If you are ill or in pain, you are alive. The overdue bills means you had heat, or your car repairs were done, or whatever it is that must now be paid for. The roof leaks? Hey, you have a roof over your head, and in these difficult times, there are many who do not.
I find it annoying when people constantly complain, throw themselves a pity party over every little glitch in their road. Woe, woe is me becomes a refrain, like the old skit that was on Hee Haw, the one where the people were on the porch with an old hound dog, singing "Gloom, despair, and agony on me, Deep, dark depression, excessive misery. If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all. Gloom, despair, and agony on me".
I am here to tell you, as long as you sit on the porch and moan, you are, indeed, going to have misery. Get up, people!! Look around you, count your blessings. Decide that if you are not feeling happy today, you will behave as if you are. And more than likely, your mood will lighten, and you actually will feel better. If you cannot pull yourself out of a state of depression or unhappiness, get some help, or make some changes, whatever it takes. See your doctor, if there is no physical cause, then perhaps a medication or counseling is in order. If there is something that is holding you back, such as a volatile  relationship, either change it, or get out of it. Do what you need to do in order to make it possible to be happy, and choose to be so. Life is far too short to sit on the porch and moan!!!