a warm puppy

who doesn't agree with THAT??? as an animal lover myself, i love the unconditional "giddiness" that my dogs bring to me every day....no matter how bad my day seems, when i walk in the door and my dogs are waiting for me, tails wagging - i have to stop and get a kiss and give a quick rub....and it always makes me smile.  now on a scale of 1-10 of animal appreciation, i would say i'm around an 8 (maybe a 7)....i love both of my rescue dogs (and my cat, whom i'm allergic too and yet still rescued), even tho one of them is the size of a small cow and the other has a bark that peels paint.....but i'm not a fanatic.  i know this because my sister and my niece are fanatic...and AT LEAST a 10 on that scale.  i'm telling you this, because while to some people maybe happiness is NOT a warm puppy, for those of us that find happiness there, it's a super fantabulous happy.  for lisa and dani, happiness is DEFINITELY a warm puppy!

so what IS happiness for the rest of us?  this is both a simple question and one of the most complex in the world.  at the end of the day, its probably the one common goal of everyone on the planet....we all want to be happy.  and we all achieve that goal to varying degree.  but what makes you happy, and what makes me happy may not be the same thing....they may not even exist on the same plane.  so how can we all accomplish this often elusive goal?  its another one of those unanswerables for me...there is no TRUE definition of happy.  it's a feeling, or a mood, or an emotion that makes everything better....and sometimes its the hardest one to find.

its funny because i tell my kids all the time that THEY GET TO DECIDE to have a good day or a bad day...you only get to choose how you react....you can't make anyone else do anything, so as long as you are in control of yourself, you can choose to be happy and have a good day.  SOOOO much easier said than done, right?  the irony is that i've spent so much of my adult life SEARCHING for happiness.....i have  a great life.....an amazing family, wonderful kids, a fantastic husband, good friends.....all the things you need to achieve happiness!  and  yet sometimes its still a struggle.  i used to ask myself "how can my big picture be so amazing, but my everyday is so much work"......and then i realized that ultimately they are one in the same.....negative begets negative - so it wasn't so much that my everyday was so bad, its just that i couldn't look past it to BRING my big picture into the proper view.  and its still something i have to work on......i fall into the negative pit.....ALOT.  i think that's normal - at least i hope it is.  but i am working on keeping the big picture better fixed in my mind so that when the everyday starts to drag me down, i can honestly take a look outside of it and see how truly lucky i am.

so really today's blog is just one big fat thank you.....to old friends and new, and to those that just pass through....you all bring happiness into my life in your own ways and i appreciate that so much.

to me, happiness is: the love of my family, seeing a smile on my kids faces, spending time with my pop, coming home to a clean house, report card day, game days, finishing a tough workout, hearing from an old friend, a good book, playing softball with my sister, a houseful of teenagers, movie night, french fries, cuddling under a warm blanket w/ kb....and winning :)  

happiness is my life, and i'm lucky to have it.....and all that it brings!