The Exhale

God, I'm happy.

I have always been able to laugh pretty easily but these days, I'm downright giddy.

What has struck me lately is that I feel content. So what, right? Who cares about contentment? Well, I'm not sure that I have ever been content before. I've certainly had extended periods of happiness. I've experienced joy and peace but there has always been this quality of restlessness about me. Foot-tapping, onto the next idea, breathless, agitated, unfocused, can't-put-my-finger-on-it unease.

For years, everything I owned would fit into a backpack so that at a moment's notice, I could bolt if I had to. I have lived in this one horse town city for seven and a half years. It's the longest that I have hung my hat in any single place ever. EVER. Like, as in forty years ever. And the strangest thing is that I like it. I am content here.

I suppose that happiness is a choice that we make each day but it is so much easier to pick that option when all facets of life are working together in harmony. Some people keep gratitude journals, some carry gratitude stones and still others blog their blessings on a daily basis. Regardless of the methodology, I'm convinced that a sustained, conscious and focused effort on the positive is life changing.

Shit happens. Yes.

But when it hits the fan, it's comforting to know that I've got more than one umbrella to weather the storm.