Pursuit of Happiness...

“Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it.”

The above statement comes from an excerpt inside the pages of, ‘Eat, Pray, Love’, by Elizabeth Gilbert. The book, along with its author, was recently featured on an Oprah Winfrey Show.

The book has reached far and wide…a phenomenon among women throughout the world.

I haven’t read the book just yet; however, in reading the first few pages, and delving into her interview she gave to Oprah, her personal agony is blatantly apparent.

Her personal, inner turmoil is revealed through her words, not only verbally, but within the pages of her book.

She begins with writing and speaking about a place of uncertainty in her life; what she really wanted, wasn’t what she really wanted at all.

I suppose in this country, there is a conditional element to ‘happiness’; we’re conditioned to think that when you grow up, you get married, by a home, have kids, and live happily ever after. However, as you probably already know, that doesn’t happen too often in the ‘real world’ where I live, where you live…I think ultimately, we have to fight for the things we want…and really, are the things we want, really the things we need?

As Elizabeth said, as noted above, ‘Happiness is the consequence of personal effort’; we strive SO HARD to attain what someone else thinks we need to be happy, when all along, we only desire to be ourselves; to be the beautiful creations that God already created us to be…

So…be happy…just being YOU!

Hospitable LOVE?

Hospitality – Defined as what exactly? Why should we be hospitable?

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I remember as a young girl my mom always tried to make our friends feel welcome, no matter if she thought highly of them or not. She always tried helping them in anyway she could as well. She just had a love for people, perhaps to just be accepted because her teenage years were plagued with turmoil and ridicule from her high school cohorts. Yet deep down, I believe she wanted to be the complete opposite of her parents. She wanted people to know that she genuinely cared for them. I think, that’s where I get it from. I have this innate desire in me to make people feel how everyone wants to feel: LOVED.

Why is that so hard for people?

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God has made you, God has made me the way He has for a reason. For me, I want people to be treated fairly, the same as anyone else. Why do we discriminate? I think it’s a combination of things, but mostly, it’s ignorance. However, I’d like to think that deep down, inside each of us, we have a genuine need to be LOVED and to LOVE one another.

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It’s amazing to me to know there is a God who loves us just as we are, right where we’re at. He accepts us, flaws and all, even when the ignorant do not. He loves us even when we don’t love Him back. He blesses us even when we don’t deserve His blessings. He forgives us even when we lack the strength to forgive. We knock and He opens the door, no questions asked. He accepts all, even after we’ve rejected Him. He returns to us, even after repeated failure. He gives us the strength to move ahead, to withstand the mayhem of a dying world. He LOVES unconditionally…
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It’s a model we ALL should live by…LOVE, no matter what the cost…which I suppose, is the very definition of hospitable…

Hmmm…what a thought…

Learning to Breathe…

I so often times take advantage of what I have. It could be taken in the blink of an eye…that absolute petrifies me, yet it makes me appreciate in abundance the amazing people in my life. My sisters are on top of that list…I am SO thankful that I have three of them…that they are all so unique in their own ways. They have their own opinions, their own causes, their own heartaches and pains; yet, when it comes down to it all, setting LIFE aside, there is this evident connection that all three of us share. I take advantage of that because I think, ‘there will be another day’, or ‘there will be another moment that we all will share’. Yet, how do I know that? How does anyone know that?

…Breathe…

I have two amazing people in my life that have lost siblings. They lost them at crucial times in their lives. Their connection, it seemed, was broken…their lives taken without an explanation. Why? I don’t know…I can’t answer that question when they ask…I don’t understand why people are taken from this earth when they are. I don’t understand why life must go on then, after, for those who are left here. I wish I could answer those questions. I wish I could take the brokenness away from them. I wish that I could do something…anything. In those moments however, I am reminded of what I do HAVE; what I still am so fortunate to have…and…as life ends, and new life begins, I’d like to think that we can be something for someone else. Sure…we can’t replace their lost sibling, but we can be their confidant, their friend, their sister or brother in spirit…and, in the end…those relationships that we are so auspicious to still have, especially those with our family, we can cherish those even more so than we did…we can embrace the moment and live each day like it was our last…taking each breath and making it matter…