Being Happy is Not the Absence of Sadness
This morning I realized that may path really has shown me something I never expected to see: that being happy does not require the absence of sadness. Not at all. Instead, it now seems to me that being happy - having a giggle, or a good laugh at something - is really about being able to focus on that which is right in front of you, and not what has been happening, or maybe is continuing to happen.
This isn't to say that the sadness isn't there - I felt it very much this morning, but that didn't stop the giggle and smile I got from what I was doing and looking at.
It's been so easy to focus on the darkness - as if it needed fixing, and because it was present, nothing could be positive until that negative was erased. But that's not the case at all. It seems that sometimes you have to accept that erasing the negative will take a little more time than you have right now, and yet that shouldn't stop you from enjoying what you are doing.
Like getting out of debt. It may take you a couple of years, but that's no reason to not enjoy today... you're doing everything you can today to deal with that, but it's just going to take more time to finish off that goal.
Sadness, too.
Smile more. It's not ignorance, or denial... it's just enjoying the thing you are doing right now.