Happiness a Choice

Having been told that I have no interests in anything, I was browsing around reading through some magazines and came across an article that precisely talked about the title in question for today. The article went on about saying that ‘Happiness is a choice’ and that one can choose to be happy in any given situation. While I was reading this article, my attention not being held on any topic wandered to apply the same to people who are going through the horrible disaster in Haiti. People in Haiti who have lost their family members, their homes, their every thing that they had been working on or had, would they make this choice? What would the rationale behind this choice be – that they are alive? I can understand to a certain extent that when anyone gets out of an accident or an horrible situation, and then realize that they are alive, they would be happy but when they come to know that everything else is gone or taken away from them, how long would that happiness remain?


Happiness is a state of mind and a lot of that depends on what goes on in that mind. People can be happy even if they don’t have worldly materials but what they sure need is peace and trust that their loved ones are around for them. When that trust is broken or when you come to know how loved ones stabbed your back or that your loves are not there anymore, then one cannot make that choice. Abraham Lincoln has said “A person will be just about as happy as they make up their minds to be”. In this case, what are you going to feed your mind? Even though your trusted ones broke your trust, that everything is okay or maybe they did that for some good reason? Even when your loved ones are gone, that they are in some better place happy and that you don’t have to worry about them?


I am sure many have heard people say “Time heals” and in my earlier post on Haiti, I did mention about this phrase and I had told you all that I would bring it up later on. So here it is. Does time really heal anyone on any given situation? Take for instance, the same people in Haiti - the ones that have lost their loved ones. They don’t even have time to grieve their loss because they have to find a way to survive and find food and water for the living ones. Even after a couple of months or years later, would they be healed of this situation? Sure, they would have found a place to live in, job to work and feed themselves and some interests to work with (I am not in that list) and keep busy but that wound of losing their loved ones, will that be healed? I am sure some will say that it leaves a scar. But more than a scar, the wound is still there deep down. It is just scabbed with other worries like every day chores or another wound that is just around the corner in life.


People often have to make choices in their lives but making happiness a choice is an interesting concept. What if I am frustrated at a situation or frustrated with someone that I love and trust? I keep thinking about it to find a solution but I also do know that I am helpless to do anything about some situations. What can I do? According to what I read, I should not dwell on it once I have planned on how to deal with it. But most times, the problem is how to deal with it, what is the right course of action to deal with a situation. Once I have an answer to the situation, then it becomes easy to implement it but finding the right answer is the problem. While I know that I cannot control the circumstances, I hope that I can control my thoughts and make happiness my choice.

Words of Wisdom

Musings for the weekend...


Over five thousand years ago, Moses said to the children of Israel "pick up your shovel, mount your asses and camels, and I will lead you to the promised land".

Nearly 75 years ago, Roosevelt said, "Lay down your shovels, sit on your asses, and light up a camel, this is the promised land".

Now Obama has stolen your shovel, taxed your asses, raised the price of camels, and mortgaged the promised land.

Enjoy your weekend!

Good Salesperson

I can forthrightly say that there are not a lot of people who visit this site or read what I have to say. Many bloggers would boast about how many visitors they have and how they keep checking their blogs in their time of absence or how visitors from different nations, place or creed bombard their mails with their comments or so on and so forth. But I can say that I have a few visitors by chance who stumble on to this site in their process of looking for something else. If you ask any of my friends or relatives or colleagues at work about my blogs, they would draw a blank. The reason being, I have not told any of them that that I maintain a blog site and portray my views on different happenings around the world or life in general.


I have not felt the need to tell anyone that I jot down my thoughts here for I write to satisfy myself, to improve my writing skills and to improve my comprehending power and more so, force myself to know the news either online or watch and hear on television and radio or take the time to actually hold the newspaper and sit in a corner undisturbed amidst my busy schedule. I do empathize with the fact that not everyone has time on their hands to spend it on reading blogs of others who regurgitate the news with their own touch or enhanced with their thoughts in a busy schedule. With the availability of blog space, many have taken the liberty to wad off their thoughts in the name of better communication. They would end up writing paragraphs after paragraph rehearsing the same point over and over again; but it is their space and they have the freedom to do so.


I have see many who maintain their blog site would mention about it in their mails (as a footnote whether in office or personal mails) or gloat about it to their kiths and kin, for they want to share their thoughts or boast about their immense writing skills or vocabulary power. Kudos to them! But the worst of it is not yet there. I have seen some who have their parents market their site to others. In any gatherings or phone conversation or meetings, their parents would pass on the information to others about their sons or daughters blog site and how well they express their thoughts intertwined with humor. I am not talking about kids or teens here; grown up adults who have the best salesperson working on their side so many will visit their blog site, only to gloat about it in their blogs. But in person, they would say that they don’t care who visits their site or not. In my case, even my parents don’t know about my site or my writings. Only if I had a good marketer on my side, many would be visiting here to see what I write and maybe I can say ‘Thanks to my visitors who flood my mailbox with your comments!’