I always get annoyed when I read the statement “happiness is a choice” I say BS! I want to be happy … I really do but sometimes I’m not… Sometimes I am sad, angry or just not happy. For the people that can turn their happiness on with a choice even in the midst of the storm around them I say “more power to you”! I may not be great at turning the happiness meter on long term but I do know how to choose laughter and sometimes that is good enough!
As I am sure it is with everyone, the Holiday can pose more issues than not and we can lose the reason for the season. It saddens me that it becomes about things and not people. It saddens me that every year I say I want to do things different and I don’t. Soon kids will be off to college and my lessons to teach will become less and less. Time goes too fast and we move on to the next thing, event or thing on our list … When we do look back it tends to be the things that don’t always go as planned that we remember the most.
When you suffer from anxiety you tend to get caught in the past or the future, losing sight of the present moment. Thank goodness for the good things that came from MLD…one being enjoying more of what is in front of me at any given time. Although I still have not perfected this, the kids tend to pull my focus back to where it should be… Sometimes this may happen in the most unexpected ways like last night.
We were so lucky last night as I got tickets to Disney on Ice for Eli, Ella and I. We were sitting with some teachers from Oaks and I knew this would make them happy! Well, it was a fun night but not quite Eli’s cup of tea… He thought the Flyers were going to come out… He said he would have even been happy with the Sixers! Many times over the two hours we were there he said things that made absolutely no sense. Things I hear every day and just push them aside because I know his brain just works differently than others. He says things that are completely untru yet somewhere in his mind he believes them. It’s sad but I have to push it away and gently bring him back to what really is reality. Thanks to Mrs. Carr (for her gloves) at least his frigid hands warmed up!! He was super happy when it was over ! Ella and I had a really nice time and it will just be the two of us next year;)
As we were leaving, my mind was wondering to Eli; what goes on in his mind, does he know what he doesn’t know, wondering where the things came from that he said while we were watching the show. We get in the car buckle up and start on our way out of the parking lot. Eli is telling me he can’t wait to take his braces off and of course my mind wanders again to his future and things unknown. Within a minute Eli says he has to pee and it brings my attention back to the NOW. Of course he had to pee after I just asked both of them if they had to go before we walked out! I’m stuck In-between cars and can go no where! Now when Eli has to go he means right then. I see a cup and before I grab it I try to help him get his pants down… They were semi nice pants so they were a bit harder to get down and it’s hard for Eli with normal pants. I get one side down with one hand and he is trying so hard to get the other side down. I have one hand on the wheel while I am now hysterical laughing at our predicament knowing what’s coming! You guessed it, I could not pull over in time and he could not get his pants down enough for the cup so he proceeded to pee everywhere. It doesn’t sound pretty but boy was it funny… He got barely any in the cup but he didn’t miss me , the front of the car, the console and of course himself. At the point I could pull over, he was finished and the three of us were in hysterics!! I think we laughed until we got past Manayunk. What a way to get brought back to the present moment and boy did it make me forget about all the things I was thinking about. It also made me realize that Love is more important than happiness… Eli makes me love easier, more and better than I could imagine. He helps me love things that I would never have imagined loving before. I love that I could laugh last night and not be angry or frustrated! All because of him.
So for me I don’t think it’s as important to always be able to choose happiness as it is to choose love!
I came across this story long before Eli and Ella were even born but it resurfaced recently and I’m glad it did. I will share it here.
Dr. Frank Oski who was the former head of pediatrics at Johns Hopkins for over 30 years, had an experience when he was a resident … He was taking care of a child that was sick and he could do nothing to help the child. He went to bed pondering why this child was going to die. He woke an hour later to a light that was bright like the sun and there was a woman in the light… This is what she told him…(in his words)
“The angel (I don’t know what else to call her) said that life is an endless cycle of improvements and that humans are not perfect yet. She said that most people have this secret revealed to them when they die, but that handicapped children often know this and endure their problems without complaining because they know that their burdens will pass. Some of these children, she said, have even been given the challenge of teaching the rest of us how to love. It stretches our own humanity to love a child who is less than perfect,” said the angel. “And that is an important lesson for us.”
He went on to say “I will make no attempt to convince you as to the reality of my story. But I would merely ask that you keep an open mind on the mysteries of life which occur to you on a daily basis”
I highlighted what I think is the most important thing for all of us to learn. Learning how to love.
I am not always happy and I don’t feel I can choose to be happy as much as I would like to but I can choose to love and with love can come laughter even in the midst of the storm.
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Fear Not 