Gregory's Big Day

First, click on the image above and read the story contained within. Because it's a story, whole and complete. It comes from a book of short stories, most of which are multiple pages and a few many pages, but this one is told in a single page. It's from a sad, twisted book that for some reason I love in a demented sort of way. It captures what I love about the book and is my takeaway from it.

They are paradoxical beliefs, but I believe that life is a lonely, depressing, meaningless thing and I believe that life is a wondrous, joyful, meaningful thing. Even in my most extreme moments of feeling one, awareness of the other is there. Circumstances influence me, of course, but largely it is up to me to decide which one I want to focus on.

I'm part of a Facebook group called "Rationalizing Happiness," in which we take situations that could be perceived as negative and find the positive twist. The cynical part of me says these are indeed rationalizations--delusions, if you will, or even lies--but the happy part of me finds meaning in them. They are kind of a joke, but they represent a choice to focus on the positive aspects of life and find joy in them. They symbolize choosing an attitude.

A while back I stumbled upon a book called Happy at Last: The Thinking Person's Guide to Finding Joy and recommended it to a friend who I thought might click with it. It was kind of a joke, but she's been reading it and getting a lot of good things out of it. Today we were discussing the chapter on the importance of finding joy in the little things, sensual things like touch, taste, hearing (music), sight (art), and lots about nature as they connect you to things bigger than you. And play and awe. Habits actually create connections and networks in the brain that effect our experience of reality. If our habits make us miserable, our brains will learn to interpret life as miserable. If it's our habit to find the small joys in things, our brains will be shaped to interpret life as more joyful.

And if we're really good, we don't even need play, awe, or sensations to feel joy, but, like Gregory, we can just decide to make each day a big one for no particular reason at all.

That's my hope and goal, anyway. I'm no pollyanna and have no intention of ever completely smothering that belief at the other end of the spectrum or denying life's miseries, but I do my best to find happiness in every way that I can.