cheerful

“It is easy to be heavy: hard to be light.” G. K. Chesterton.

Have you ever noticed this? I am finishing a book called The Happiness Project. It's the memoir of the author's year of focusing on happiness in her life. Every single person who has seen me with it has picked it up and said, "Oh, what are you reading?" This is usually followed by them thumbing through the book and saying, "Wow, I really like this." or "This is pretty good." or "I should read this!"

Clearly it's striking a chord.

Sometimes I feel like being an adult is supposed to mean being sort of grouchy and responsible and gloomy. I think everyone has seen many adults like this. And for sure, I have been this way. A lot of people certainly have reasons for feeling sad or grouchy or gloomy, and I certainly don't want to minimize that.

But, fortunately, I don't have very many reasons for being emo. For my own sake, I think I need to list some of the reasons I have for NOT being emo: I really like my job. I love where I live. I have a stellar roommate. I like my family and they are close. I have a giant red mug that I'm drinking hot water out of right now. It used to be my brother's, but he gave it to me. Caleb. I generally have time to cook. My health is good. I get to hang out with some awesome bilingual children once a week. I just watched a Spanish novela thanks to the Internet. I have this sweet curtain in my room that reminds me of Turkey every time I see it (even though I've never been to Turkey). There are plants in my house. Like inside it. I have many close friends.

Wow. Once I got started on that, it was really easy to think of things. I could probably continue. But it seems so much easier and "default" to just be heavy and not light. Food for thought...