Over the Rainbow

Josie: Are you happy?

Wyatt: Well, I don’t know.  I’m as happy as the next man, I guess. I don’t laugh all day like an idiot, if that’s what you mean.

–A scene from one of my favorite movies, Tombstone.    It’s a simple enough question, but how would we really answer?  Truly answer. We spend a considerable amount of time trying to cover up guilt, disregard regret, deny jealousy and resolve contempt that I think we forget our main pursuit (or what should be our main pursuit):  happiness.

Happiness. A worthy pursuit, certainly.  But somehow, most of us fail.  And in our failure, of what do we miss out?  Does it affect our families and friends?  Our work?  Our lives?  Of course, but do we even notice?  I think we get so caught up in living that we don’t even realize or even care when we are unhappy.  And then we don’t even recognize when we are happy.  Sometimes, the simplest things can make us happy or alter our attitude and mood enough to allow a little bit of joy to creep in.

Like grabbing the brass ring, it is easy to miss.  Life goes whizzing by so fast that we can’t even see the joy we have found or slow down enough to embrace it and feel the difference between happiness and a droning existence or what we think we should be doing, how we think we should be feeling — what the world, our own little world, expects of us.

We dream of the other side of the rainbow, we chase the bluebird of happiness – when all along it was right in our own backyard.  But because the answer was and is so simple, we simply didn’t and don’t see it.  Or we are lucky enough and we do. Don’t close your eyes to it or to the possibility.  It is a very real feeling, emotion, state of being and it is obtainable.  Happiness is NOT overrated.

“There is no duty that we so underrate as the duty of being happy. ” – Robert Louis Stevenson

Mr. Stevenson died over a hundred years ago, but the concept of which he spoke is not old-fashioned.  It has just been sadly misplaced, misunderstood and made to be far more complicated than it needs to be.  Those with nothing seem to reside in greater happiness and peace than those with everything.  What is the secret? Individually, it will be something different.  I suppose it is for each of us to find out for ourselves.  For me? It was forgiveness.  Pretty simple really.  Forgiving others, yes – but mostly forgiving myself of guilt, regret, jealousy, and contempt – four walls that most assuredly keep happiness away.  And then, seizing happiness, even the smallest spark of it, when it comes into view.

If happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow,
Why, oh why can’t I?

You can.

by rayannethorn

 

My Cousin Angie – a story of survival

When I was a senior in High School, I worked at the local mall – about eight stores total, in La Porte, IN.   I worked for a little dress shop called Stuart’s.  It would be comparable to a Forever 21 today. I loved it. Every paycheck bought me new clothes from the store where I worked for $3.75 an hour. I did get a 30% discount off anything I bought, but still – I wasn’t the best as saving, obviously. I had the world by the tail and was loving life.

One evening, when I was working the 5-9 shift, I received a phone call from my mom. Pre-mobile phone days, so she had called on the store land line. Pretty much a no-no – NO personal calls, right? I took the call while my boss stared me down. My mom proceeded to tell me that my cousin Angela had been in a terrible car accident.   I started to shake and I feared the worst. She was still alive, but it was very, very bad. I cannot emphasize how bad. It was as bad as it could get without it being the worst. My boss watched the unfolding of Rayanne right before her and she knew I was devastated. She withheld the “no personal call” scolding and sent me home.

Angela and I had grown up living close to each other, our families spending one or two Sundays a month together, and many weekend nights at each other’s house. My cousin Angie was a style icon to me… I loved the way she dressed and how easily she was put together.   I can remember like it was yesterday, standing in her bathroom giggling and brushing our teeth as we prepared for an all night gab fest – she turned to me and said, “You know you can put toothpaste on zits and it will clear them up?”  Angie was always a wealth of just such information. She was an entrepreneur at a very young age. When her family moved to UT after spending all of her life in California, Angela found a way to stay in tough with her contacts and friends on the West Coast. She got into cross-state merchandising at the ripe old age of 17. She purchased items in UT and then drove into California and sold them for a profit. But one such trip brought the afore-mentioned tragedy.

Angie had a terribly long recovery. She was in, what was termed, a “walking coma.” And when she awoke, she had a rebirth. She started her life over – literally.   Angela,then and now, is one of the most loving people you could ever meet. I had been thinking about her a bit when my Aunt sent over an email with news about The Waifs, an Australian band that my cousin’s (Angie’s younger brother, Mat) wife is part of. Vikki Thorn, Mat’s wife and mother of his two children (one more on the way!)  has a haunting voice and so captured the essence of Angela in a song of that title that I had to share it here. Please visit The Waif’s site for their new album, Temptation and have a free listen to “Angela.” (click on the golden arrow next to “Angela”)

I love you Angie.  I love you, Aunt Joanne and Uncle Chuck.  Life is not always easy but the rewards are sweet and sure for those who joyfully endure.

If you are lucky enough to have an incredible life of health, love, and peace – you are lucky enough. Enjoy!

by rayannethorn