After an almost week of being ill, and recovering from being ill, it feels good to be out in the world again. Though Mondays are never a favorite, I’m grateful to be back in my life with coffee and music, coworkers who make me smile and laugh, lyriquediscorde posts to create, and my youngest, my son, starting high school. It is bittersweet knowing how close to grown he is. Even though time is a construct, it certainly has an impact on us. And, I know how old it makes me sound, but time just keeps going faster and faster, year after year. I’d be up for a pause button now and then, or a slow-motion control. Though my fast pace and energy probably couldn’t take it. So, instead, I will take today to reflect on the quick passage of time, and how important it is to be present in the now. To enjoy right this very minute, and try to let go of the past, and worries about the future. I think one of the keys to happiness is in the attempt to be in the now. To embrace it, the good and the bad and the in-betweens, right as its happening. As the song goes, “enjoy yourself (it’s later than you think).”
Things that make me happy today, in the moments of today: Waking up next to the man I love. His sleepy eyes and the way his fingers curl around the edge of the blanket. The way he squints at me as he says good morning. The reality that I get to kiss him every morning. Clyde the cat curled up next to him in bed. And later, how Clyde shadowed me all morning, keeping me company as I made coffee, did my hair and makeup, put together something to take to work for lunch. My son, falling asleep in the back seat on our way to his first day of high school. How seeing him in the rearview with his head tilted back, and his eyes closed, reminded me so much of how he used to look in his car seat as a baby, falling asleep finally on a long drive home. Music in the car on my way to work, how this song, Goldfrapp’s “Happiness” came on as part of one of the “Daily Mixes” Spotify puts together based on my music taste/music play history. How a song about happiness was just what I needed today. How excited everyone was to see me when I got into the office. It was nice to be missed. I missed them, too. I’m so grateful to be working where I am. I really do love my job, and after years of feeling very differently, I know how rare this is to feel. Fresh fruit, cantaloupe, and blueberries. I’m glad they are what I brought for breakfast this morning. The love I feel in my heart, every day, and how it grows and expands. How lucky I am to have found my person, and how happy it makes me loving him.
“Happiness” by Goldfrapp
from the album, Seventh Tree (2008)
Song of the Day
“Happiness”, by Goldfrapp, is track three from their fourth studio album, Seventh Tree (2008). The song was written and produced by Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory and was released as the album’s second single in April of 2008. It reached #25 on the UK singles chart and as of 2017. (from Wikipedia)
How would you define happiness? Is it something that is all-consuming? Or can you be happy and still have a myriad of other emotions and feelings going on at the same time? Is it fleeting, as so many say? Or is happiness something sustainable? I like to believe that happiness can be held on to and that it can exist even when life is hard when other stresses and worries take us on. That we can still be happy no matter what. At least that’s how I hope it is. I know right now, in my life, that I am happy, and that that sense of happiness does not feel temporary, or fleeting. No, on the contrary, it feels more like forever.
