Last week I heard Terry Gross from Fresh Air interview Kerry Egan, a hospice chaplain about her new memoir, “On Living.” One of the things Egan said really struck me – that often times people who are dying will look back upon their lives and realize that they were happy and didn’t even realize it.
That really hit me hard. So often we are striving for the next best thing – whatever it is – and we forget to stop and savor the small moments in life that bring us joy. The little things. Or we just don’t realize that the little things are indeed the stuff of happiness.
Taking that to the next step, it begs the question, what makes you happy? What are the things, both large and small, that give you joy in life, whether it’s a fleeting moment of happiness or a lingering sense that life is good?
Are you sprinkling your life with those very things that give you joy?
So often we forget about finding joy in our lives. We’re all about the stress and the problem-solving and the what’s wrong with life. Perhaps it’s time to ask ourselves what’s right in life?
And if you don’t have a good answer to that question, it’s time to start figuring out what makes you happy and why you aren’t weaving those wonderful things throughout your days and months and years. Because it would be a tragedy to get to the end of your days – whenever that might be – and realize that not only that you didn’t ever really know what made you happy or that you just didn’t let enough joy into your days because you were too busy figuring out life’s problems.
Get started today. Ask yourself the question. What makes you happy?
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