Walking through this
life, my definition of happiness has changed drastically. When I was in
my 20's, I thought the key to happiness was to live what most people would
term "The American Dream." You know, that crazy notion of a
perfect marriage, white picket fence, beautiful (and most perfect) children, a dream
job and bliss (with a pot of gold to top it all off!). By the time I hit
42, that reality was smashed like a piece of crystal that accidentally slipped
from your hands. I realized that it wasn’t that I had, what looked to many
people to be the quintessential life of "having it all," but
that I could not find happiness in those things. The ultimate wisdom
comes from the epiphany that happiness is not something you construct or gather
with an accumulation of things in this life. Like a bucket list we create
at an early age of the "must haves," we are not mature enough at the
beginning of our adult young life to understand that happiness is the feeling
of joy you feel deep down inside, the contentment that "I am ok exactly
where I am" because of you and not your stuff. It is not the "frills" that we
add to our lives in the form of a beautiful home, fancy car, or, big “bling”
but the joy of the simple things in life.
As the comedian George Carlin used to say, "we are always trying to
find a place for our stuff, we wouldn't even need a house if we didn't have so
much stuff and then we need to get a bigger house because we have even more
stuff." Though presented in a comedic way, it is such a true and
ironic statement. We end up living in such clutter both internally and
externally, that we don't know how to clean our inner house and just live. Why is it that most people have to hit some
kind of rock bottom - that kind of
calamity that "hits you in the face" that finally makes you
realize that everything we need to solve our dilemmas are at our fingertips,
just inside ourselves! The lesson here is that "stuff" doesn't
bring happiness, but when contentment is finally found in the simplicity and
joy within, we begin to manifest all we need, both in the form of desires and
things (or "stuff" as George calls it!). I had to learn the
hard way but you don't have to. Check out Graham Hill's opinion piece
called “Living
With Less. A Lot Less.”. Graham
writes how he has found that owning less stuff has made him happier. When
clutter starts accumulating inside your house ask yourself why? Is this an attempt to fill your soul to make
yourself happy? And before giving into
that quick fix of searching for something tangible to "buy and accumulate"
in order to satiate your happiness, stop and look inside yourself first. Where can you start cleaning out the clutter
(both inner and outer) that is collecting in your life and preventing you from
truly living your life?
A house is just a place to keep your stuff while you go out and get more stuff.
- George Carlin
A house is just a place to keep your stuff while you go out and get more stuff.
- George Carlin