Jonathan Lamphier

We’ve all seen them. The bright cheerful people. They go through their day, seemingly without a care in the world.

Those shiny, happy people.

No matter what happens, they always seem to have a smile on their face.

Don’t they have problems? Stress? Challenges?

I’m sure they must. But, yet they appear to be free of all lifes trappings. Why are they like that?

I know now that it’s because they choose to be.

My Mom is one of those people.

She wasn’t always that way. And I’m not sure when the transformation actually occurred. But, for the past several years, no matter what’s going on in her life she stays happy.

This is a woman who has been to Hell and back in her lifetime. Abusive husbands, financial hardships and addictions. She is unable to work due to back and neck problems, as well as arthritis. She is often in a lot of pain. What little she gets for disability is made smaller by the I.R.S. for payment of unpaid taxes, which leaves very little to live on.

A lot of people would be very unhappy if they had to live their life like that. I never understood how she, in the face of all that, could be happy.

It’s simply because she chooses to be.

She helps people in her neighborhood, without expecting anything in return. She smiles at people. She compliments people, asks them about their day. And she is grateful just to be alive.

She has been a constant reminder that even as I struggled to build my business and so many other things in daily life…I can choose to be happy. To be grateful for what I have, and to be alive. Not to dwell on the things I have lost. Or, what could have been.

Someone once told me, “If you have one foot in yesterday and one foot in the tomorrow, you’re pissing all over today.”

Today, I will choose to be happy.

Share on Facebook