I may be a sucker for those find yourself, books about self discovery (Wild, Eat Pray Love [are just two I can think of at the moment]). So I may be, I’ll just leave that for now. Or maybe it’s just where I am in life now where I need some advice, some stories to inspire and to convince me that we all don’t have it figured out. I always love the underdog books. Maybe I’ll find a self discovery novel that I don’t like, there are some, now that I think of it, that I do not like. So perhaps it has more to do with where I am in life now.
But there were some things that were really great and touching about this book (which I will try to post the first review on the book site). The first was later in the book, but was about choosing to be happy. “Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it” (Gilbert 260). Happiness is something you have to cultivate, it’s not something that necessarily happens.
For example yesterday I was feeling pretty sick, spent half the day crying about the various things you cry about when you’re sick (spilling tea, eating too much candy, being tired, or this just me??). But after that I had some nice dinner, got some good TLC, and did things which made me feel good and, despite feeling sick, thought at the end of the day, this was a good day, I was happy today.
I’m not saying that it was a great example of cultivating my own happiness, but it was one of those days where if I relied on the circumstances, I wouldn’t have found a reason to be happy. But I found happiness in the tasks I did at those moments. Happiness is like gardening, you have to plant the seeds, and you might not see something immediately, but they need love, care, water, and sunlight.
I find that on days where I “stack” my happiness, like points or bricks on a scale, are the days in which I am the most unhappy. It reminds me of a quote from doctor who:
“The way I see it, every life is a pile of good things and bad things. The good things don’t always soften the bad things, but vice versa, the bad things don’t always spoil the good things and make them unimportant.”
— The Doctor, Season 5, Episode 10 (link)
Because sometimes Doctor who just hits you in the gut. But those days in which I try to balance the sides of the scale, are the days in which I cannot find peace. Happiness isn’t about having more good things than bad, it’s about finding the happiness in what you do.
Savor the good and experience the bad. Relish in the good and move past the bad.