Regarding Happiness, Lemons, and Silver Linings

Happiness is a choice.  We've all heard that old catch phrase from psycho-gurus pedaling their self-help book on daytime talk shows.  It's sound advice really, especially if you find your life resembles the world's most depressing country song (i.e., you've lost your spouse, job, dog, and house, and you are now suffering from a terminal form of toe fungus).  Your horrible circumstances do not need to define your mood, you can still be happy.  However, you have to actively make the choice to be happy inspite of your experiences

That totally made sense to me.  When life is using a potato cannon to launch lemons at you at the speed of 85 mph, it's vital that you shield yourself with silver linings or risk getting impaled with lemon shrapnel (and you thought lemon juice in a paper cut was bad).  But I'm beginning to consider the possibility that maybe, just maybe, you need to choose happiness even when life is far from miserable.

Consider my world at the moment.  I've got a good paying job.  I live four blocks from the beach. I seem mostly healthy.  I'm no longer addicted to Diet Coke. See not that bad. Sure, there are things that are lacking in my life. I'm not a size 6, I don't own a dog, and my knight in shining armor is apparently lost in the Enchanted Forest.  Not exactly life threatening problems, right? But still I've found myself with a bad case of the blah's.

You see it's just that I thought that by this my point in my life, things would be different. I imagined I'd have traveled the world, married a scottish version of Tom Hanks (yes, that is indeed my ideal man), had 2.3 children, owned a house and a dog, published several books, and achieved that elusive size 6 waistline. Instead I live a very different, but good life. That should be enough to make me happy, right? Yet, when my coworkers ask how I'm doing I generally answer with a non-committal, "meh."

But you know what, I'm tossing off the blah's and meh's. No more discontented sighs.  I'm tired of being two shades away from happy. I don't need to be dodging speeding lemons to choose happiness.  Right here, right now, I'm choosing to be happy.  In spite of everything good and bad in my life, I'm fashioning myself a coat of silver linings.