Recently I walked away from spending time with someone and I thought, “that person isn’t happy.”
Here’s the thing, though.
They weren’t SAD. or DEPRESSED. or SORROWFUL.
They just weren’t happy.
You could hear it in the way they talked about their friendships, the state of their house, their current reality vs their past expectations, their constant spending… a whole bunch of stuff, none of which was HAPPY.
The first time I came to Nashville, Layla had a meltdown on the day I arrived. Ernie asked her if she had lost her happy, to which she nodded with tears streaming down her face. He grabbed a sharpie and he helped her find her happy…
…by drawing a smiley face on her hand. But it worked. She was happy as a clam… for a few minutes, anyway.
Layla’s happy (for that moment) was a drawn on smiley face. Hers varies on mood and circumstance, but her happy is there. She just has to find it.
What is your happy? What is it that pulls you out of a funk or lights up your heart or always makes you smile?
As Christians we often say we want joy INSTEAD OF happy, but I think more truthfully we want joy AND happy. We want the quiet assurance that God is who he is, regardless of what we see around us (joy!) but I think we also want things that illuminate what we see around us, regardless of if we feel trapped in a cave or free in a field of wildflowers.
Don’t get caught without your happy, even if it is a small and seems uncelebratory. The things that make you happy are the things that turn your bad days around and get you through a long work day and give you a momentary break in a time of melancholy.
I’ve made lists of 15 things that make me so very happy [part 1 / part 2] so that if I ever need a reminder, I have a quick reference of ways to defeat my funk.
I love this and it made me rethink my happy/joy and sense of positivity. So I’m working on it and being happy for each little blessing I do have in my life! (including you!!)
that whole search for contentment is tough–because it’s not like i (or that person) are especially unhappy, like you said…it’s just a lack of sparkle? haha i’m going to start asking glum students if they’ve lost their sparkle. they’ll probably think that’s as funny as when i call them noodles for doing something slightly unsmart.