Happiness is Feeling Good Inside

Happiness is making choices that honor our values.  It means letting go regrets, procrastination, pleasing others, out-dated attitudes, and blaming others when everyone involved made mistakes.  Forgiveness and moving on with grace and gratitude for lessons learned helps prepare us for new challenges. True happiness is much deeper than momentary pleasures or quick fixes; it often involves years of soul-searching and making tough choices.

When we are happy, our posture, our faces, our words show it.  A good example would be the crowd cheering President Obama on election night, and his well-articulated determination and readiness to be our captain for this next four years.  Yes, there will be storms ahead, on land, sea and in our legislative process.  We have elected a man with courage, tenacity, grace, discipline, and a passion to make choices that make us proud again to be Americans.  He continues reaching out to us all to help make the dream that the best is yet to come really possible.  It helps to have a wife truly his partner, and daughters who share the perspectives of intelligent youth.  He has deep support on his home front, a blessing for anyone facing daunting challenges that we have few precedents for handling, globally and at  home.

This election makes me feel more hopeful and happy inside. The hard works of many citizens have spoken loud and clear. Obama won the Hispanic vote, the Black vote, and that of many other folks marginalized by the rhetoric and voting choices of the Tea Party.  The white, educated elite with huge corporate support is no longer running the show.   The Senate is now twenty percent women, including a gay woman, a Buddhist of Asian heritage, and a strong advocate for holding banks and corporations accountable in Ted Kennedy’s old seat.  This country is finally waking up to our changing demographics and priorities. We are not returning to the days when women’s primary role was to serve the men in their lives.  Our voices are being heard.  We have reasons to rejoice!

We, the Silenced Majority Amy Goodman speaks about, are beginning to find our voices, starting with the Occupy protests in cities large and small across this country, folks protesting the status quo that has created many of our painful grievances and real losses. We have overcome the powers of greed and big money trying to influence every vote in this country.  The crowd in Chicago was obviously very happy  as they waited for Obama’s acceptance speech.  We need one another’s support to be happy. Being isolated and unheard leads to depression and too often, despair.  When we trust the direction we’re going, sharing core values, it is easier to be happy and have a sense we are in this together. Happiness is a great feeling indeed!