"When you get those rare moments of clarity, those flashes when the universe makes sense, you try desperately to hold on to them. They are the life boats for the darker times, when the vastness of it all, the incomprehensible nature of life is completely illusive. So the question becomes, or should have been all a long... What would you do if you knew you only had one day, or one week, or one month to live. What life boat would you grab on to? What secret would you tell? What band would you see? What person would you declare your love to? What wish would you fulfill? What exotic locale would you fly to for coffee? What book would you write?"


Monday, October 11, 2010

Happiness in a Bottle


Do you ever wish you could take a happy moment and save it for later? A happy scent? A happy thought? Happy conditions....happy weather? A happy moment?

OK my first (and maybe only I really can't predict the future) example is this:
It's a beautiful day out. Absolutely gorgeous. Blue skies. Not one cloud. Perfect temperature. Perfect breeze. People tossing footballs outside, laying on beach blankets because hey, it has rained for the past 3 weeks and today it's gorgeous. Of course, it makes sense that you have to spend some time outside. It is so overwhelmingly happy that you just dont know what to do with yourself. Part of you wishes that you could capture this perfect moment...so you can save it for later. So when youre having a really bad day, you can open up that bottle and enjoy a little bit of what you saved. But life isn't like that. It's jut sometimes, i wish I could spread the joy out over a longer time span. Like on that gorgeous day you are happy for that moment but you know that dark days ahead, an pretty soon you're gonna want nothing more than to be back on that perfect day. When you're stuck in the middle of your worst day, how many of you have said, "oh my, I took that day for granted. I am having the worst day ever and how much would I rather be sitting on a beach blanket ?

Then there is another aspect. Let's say it's a gorgeous day. But it's Bren gorgeous for the past two weeks too. Rain however is in the forecast, soon. So you know that you should stay outside and enjoy this day but man, you're a little tired with it being gorgeous. Too much joy. I've been there. And part of me really just wants to go in my tiny room and open the window, put on my sweats, crawl under the covers and study there instead with a cup of tea.
The point of a gorgeous day is to make you happy. To help you enjoy this day given to us. But what if snuggling under the covers, "wasting" the nice day, makes you equally as happy? But there is this nagging thought that itches at you to get your ass outside because it is too nice to be inside. Maybe it's because I come from a childhood generation where that was a rule. My mother never let us stay inside if it was sunny out. Heck, one day I was home sick from school and we went outside together because it was sunny. We always played outside when we could, and enjoyed the rainy rays inside and that was that. Do I have this innate rebelling thing that wants to therefore crawl under the covers because I spent so many years outside when it was nice? Or do I feel guilty and unhappy for staying inside because of that?

Then there are those times when life Is just so great. Or you are experiencing something that you want to remember forever. Whether it be that you're at a concert and it is friggen awesome, or you are taking pictures in an old village. I have moments where I'm like, wow I wish I could find a way to just replay this whenever. It is a moment so good and you know that you will miss it and want more details about that memory... Later on.

Well that's it for now. I've had this blog idea in mind today and I finally decided to act on it because today I was riding on my bike, and the temperature was perfect, and I love my bike, and I wanted the moment to last forever....


P.S. - as I was writing this, I was sitting outside my library with a lot of other people and it was gorgeous night, and the nighttime lights were on, and it was so perfect and happy. Then, it started raining. Just sayin.

P.S.S.- the picture I attached is from the other day when I was biking and I stopped to sit on a bench down by the lake and it was just picture perfect. I had to take a picture to help me remember :-)

1 comment:

Jessica said...

Well said! I LOVE the picture :) I also feel extremely happy when I'm on my bike.