Happiness
“You can't be happy unless you're unhappy sometimes".”- Lauren Oliver (Delirium)
When Sean & I lived in Rhode Island, I wasn't very happy. The things that did make me happy, though, were as follows:
The facts of life that I knew were making me very unhappy were my commute, our lack of friends, and the distance from our families. Sean & I fought (a lot), I cried (a lot), and we were both incredibly stressed (for all of the aforementioned reasons and, surely, reasons that I did not even realize).
When, by the grace of God, we were both offered jobs and made a whirlwind of a move back to Rochester, I had not idea just how happy I was going to be.
Just yesterday, I said to Sean, "I don't know if I have ever been so happy with my life." At that point, we discussed the fact that, since we have moved, we've hardly fought, I've hardly cried (I still watch TV, after all, and we all know how sad some shows/commercials can be!) and life itself seems to be significantly less stressful.
My biggest realization was this: I did not realize how unhappy I was (in life, and particularly in my job) until I started to feel such happiness in my "new" life.
My life in Rhode Island was not a bad one. In fact, Sean & I were very lucky with the jobs that we had, the people that we knew, the home we lived in, etc... but now that I am feeling such happiness, I am better able to recognize how miserable I was before. I catch myself, now, saying frequent prayers of thanks for the life that we are living, and the friends & family that we have, both near and far.
“Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it. You must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it.” - Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love)
When Sean & I lived in Rhode Island, I wasn't very happy. The things that did make me happy, though, were as follows:
- Our very best friends lived 1.5 hours away and often came to visit Providence, so we were able to spend time with them
- I knew some wonderful people at my job (in my office and at the University) who I still consider to be very close friends
- Sean & I had some "regular" places, like our Saturday morning bagels and coffee that we so adored
- There were quite a few awesome places within day trip distance (like Boston, Newport, Salem, etc.)
The facts of life that I knew were making me very unhappy were my commute, our lack of friends, and the distance from our families. Sean & I fought (a lot), I cried (a lot), and we were both incredibly stressed (for all of the aforementioned reasons and, surely, reasons that I did not even realize).
When, by the grace of God, we were both offered jobs and made a whirlwind of a move back to Rochester, I had not idea just how happy I was going to be.
Just yesterday, I said to Sean, "I don't know if I have ever been so happy with my life." At that point, we discussed the fact that, since we have moved, we've hardly fought, I've hardly cried (I still watch TV, after all, and we all know how sad some shows/commercials can be!) and life itself seems to be significantly less stressful.
My biggest realization was this: I did not realize how unhappy I was (in life, and particularly in my job) until I started to feel such happiness in my "new" life.
My life in Rhode Island was not a bad one. In fact, Sean & I were very lucky with the jobs that we had, the people that we knew, the home we lived in, etc... but now that I am feeling such happiness, I am better able to recognize how miserable I was before. I catch myself, now, saying frequent prayers of thanks for the life that we are living, and the friends & family that we have, both near and far.
“Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it. You must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it.” - Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love)
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