Better Than Happy

Things have changed.

You may not have an income right now.
You may not be able to visit your parents. (Like me.)
You may have lost a loved one.
Even groceries may be hard to acquire.

No matter who you are, things have changed.

The thing is, we always want things to get better when they change.

We want to move to a better house.
We want to learn from our mistakes.
We want to have more money.

But sometimes things don’t get better.

In our quest for happiness… our basic right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness… we have forgotten that happy isn’t what most people are really looking for.

If all you get is happy, then happy becomes ordinary.
There is no dimension to happy.
Happy is bright and chipper and on the surface.

Happy seems like what we want because it seems like it would be a relief to be happy.

Happy is like an ice cream sundae.
Yes, it’s a great treat, but eaten every day would become one-dimensional.
And a bit sticky sweet.

And yes, with bad there is gut wrenching.
But that is part of the wonderful messiness of life.

Here’s the good news:

When things get bad, there is the opportunity for better than happy.

With the bad, things get deep and real.
There are heroes.
Creativity flourishes.

When things are bad, you put less of a priority on what you “should” do, and spend your time and energy connecting in new ways.

And… after bad there is healing.

What’s better than happy?
Getting it all.
Good.
Bad.
Ugly.

The real.

That’s better than happy.