Happiness.

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Happiness. How do I even begin to talk about happiness and have the authenticity that I want to speak about it with? It is such a broad, but fantastic feeling... or is it even a feeling to begin with? Happiness (to me) is like a state of well being, a feeling of great satisfaction or love or whatever you possibly could think of. Happiness is. Many people have different ways of viewing happiness which is understandable. Different things make different people happy.

So, let's talk about happiness then. The REAL kind. The RAW and UNCUT kind of happiness.

Happiness is a choice. Plain and simple. You can wake up and CHOOSE to be happy or you cannot. It is YOUR choice. There is always, always going to be stress in your life, you guys. If I can promise you one thing then I can promise you that... but, I can also promise that if you allow it, then there will always be happiness too because, in all honesty, real happiness requires so much less than what you think it does.

God LITERALLY had David write it in the bible for everyone to know just how little it requires to be happy. TRULY happy.

"Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart." Psalms 37:4

and again telling us to not fall angry when we are tested and are going through testing times, but to have joy and know that having faith is going to produce patience.

"My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience." James 1:2-3

You see? It's not hard at all! Now, I know that there are some days when literally EVERYTHING is going wrong and it feels like it just won't stop, but just have faith and push forward. Trust me... I work in customer service and there are days when I could just hang up on some of those people, but I don't. I politely answer their questions (even if they're not asking questions and simply yelling at me) and go on with my day! You never know what the other person is going through. We're all human.

(okay okay. So I'm a leasing agent, but with all of the stuff I have to deal with I feel like it's customer service sometimes lol)

I promise that I am not happy every day. I try to be for sure, but life happens sometimes :) and that's okay too! Just remember how it truly feels to be happy when you do have days like that. I always try to remember things that made my heart happy, you know? Like those deep belly laughs with my best friends Sara and Seth. You know the ones... where you're laughing so hard nothings coming out EXCEPT tears? Those. Or Christmas time with my crazy family (crazy in a good way (love you mom lol).) Being surrounded by so much laughter and people talking so loud that you can't even think your own thoughts. Or when my boyfriend randomly slow dances with me in the grocery store, or in a car lot, OR in the living room, ORRRR.. okay okay you guys get the point! He's a sweetheart. I'll even think of my siblings (Shocking!) Getting to know my three sisters and the ( although limited) precious times we had or spending time with my brothers. I love my boys even if one of them did break my arm when I was seven lol.

Thinking of all of these things are what brings me joy and happiness and even makes me laugh still.

I encourage everyone that takes the time to actually read these to try to have better days. Think of the moments that made your heart leap. Never take time for granted. And love so fiercely, so entirely that they don't know what to do with all of it!

and always, always Stay Radiant <3

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