Happy

 One question I always start my classes with is "How are you?"

Most kids give the standard answers: "I'm okay," "I'm tired."  Sometimes they reply in Japanese if they have difficulty expressing things in English.

I have a 5th-grade boy who always answers "I'm happy."  No matter how busy he is at school, how bad the weather is, or any other external factor, he is always happy.

During his lesson this week, he told me about his Golden Week holiday. He went somewhere with his family.  It sounded like a nice few days away from the city! He was really smiling as he recalled his holiday. 

This had me thinking about being happy.

Do we lose our ability to just be happy when we get into adulthood?  Are the stresses of paying bills, meeting deadlines and long lists of things that have to be done robbing us of being happy?

Am I happy?

Actually, I'm happier than I thought I would be.  When we lost the old house, I went into tail tailspin of depression. 

In my diary, I wrote that moving to this house was a death sentence. I was that unhappy about being here. But somehow I'm not that unhappy about living here. Are there problems here, yes!! A long list of things that need to be fixed or changed.  Will they be done before the end of the year? Probably not!

Do I have the money I need to do all the things I want to do, plus some left over to do things I would like to do? Again, the answer is no!

So, how can I state that I'm happy?  Because I've realized that happiness has little to do with my surroundings!  I could live in the perfect house, with lots of money, in a vibrant city where I could visit museums or watch musicals, but still be unhappy!

I am choosing to be happy now! Every morning I wake and say to myself, "I'm grateful and I'm happy!"

I can watch my garden grow, scream at the bugs that are starting to crawl everywhere, play with my cats, cook nice meals, and the occasional treat! I have my kids nearby, we can talk and laugh together. 

Does this mean my life is easy? No, there are still challenges! My health is rather bad at the moment, allergies and a cold that seems to be going round and round here!  

We still don't have money, and aren't getting a lot of new students.  

I worry about all sorts of things, but in reality, it's not that bad.

The big question is, why did it take so long to get to this mindset?  

I knew about this, that finding happiness is a choice, but I never put it into practice before now! I guess better late than never!

The full moon the other night made me really happy. I love looking at the night sky. There is very little light pollution here, so the sky is very clear.

These photos were taken in the city, so not so good. 

Moon rising

Beautiful moon

I was going to wait until we got back to take photos, but I realized that it would be a lot later and the moon wouldn't appear so large. 

Now I've written this, I'm wondering what is going to happen to challenge my happiness!