Staying happy is no joke

Sun lights up Cherrywood
Acrylic on canvas
16 x 20 inches
Barbara Muir © 2010
(stages 1-10, a few more to come)

It has only dawned on me in the last few years
that working on being happy is a choice. I now
know that the smiling people who greet you in
stores, teach you in schools, run in races, work
in hospitals -- happy people -- did not get there
by magic. They woke up every morning making
the choice to be happy with what they're doing,
what they have, who they know, how they act,
or to look for a way to change it. That action taken
by so many people I know who are seriously ill,
perhaps dying, who are terrified about money
worries, or just plain frightened about some big
decision they have to make in their lives, I see
as a supreme act of bravery, and one that impresses
me again and again.

It turns out as I've said before that this act of courage
spreads, and the people who are encouraged and
touched by this depth of love for the world, become
happier too.

I have to get up early tomorrow, so I'm showing you
a painting that needs some work. It was a rescue
canvas that I picked up in the shelter of an upstairs
bedroom and dragged out onto my front porch to see
if I had more vision, or better thoughts than when I
started the piece about 6 months ago. I did, but I
kept losing energy, and had to talk myself out onto
the porch about every five minutes, and give myself
apples, and celery and hundreds of cups of coffee.
So now. It is almost done. It will take maybe two
more porch sessions and dappled sunlight. I am
ready for the heat to return tomorrow (it's so
freezing tonight) and then we'll take it to the next
level. How does this relate to being happy? I decided
that the best thing about this painting is its happy
light, and whatever else is going on, I do try to see
my world in a happy light.

Have a seeing-your-world-in-a-happy-light day