The Pursuit of Happiness--Entry 11

With this week being Thanksgiving, then a day full of madness in greed of shoppers, I found this article, Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, the best thing to read this week.  I have been having a hard time during the holiday season these past couple of years because our family is in Utah and we are in Illinois.  Travelling standby (since my husband is an airline pilot--it's a good perk) is getting harder through the company every month in the past few months, we are for sure not going to Utah for Christmas this year.  We can never go for Thanksgiving because we wouldn't make it out, and if we did, we wouldn't make it home.  We have traveled for Christmas three out of the five years living in Illinois, and this year, we just can't do it.  Our main support system lives in Utah.  Our friends we have known for years, and our family all lives there.  Trying to even Skype or contact our families through a phone call is impossible lately with them all gathered together and us sitting in our living room checking for their updates on Facebook--just to feel like we are a part of them still.  In this article, it talks a lot about our support system and being grateful.  These were two things that stood out to me.  

"Deep loving relationships, with a capacity for gratitude, forgiveness, and sharing are far more important than accomplishments." (pg 5)  

"We live in relationship with others and we need to belong.  We need others to complete us." (pg 11)

To have deep, fulfilling relationships with family, friends, our spouse, our children, and our grandchildren throughout our life is something that I see as fulfilling our life.  It reminds me of The Christmas Carol by Charles Dickins where Scrooge sees his future.  He sees that there was a man that died and nobody cared that he died.  They just wanted his things, and they were so happy to be free of the miser.  Scrooge couldn't believe it could be him because he thought he had relationships with the people in the future.  He thought they respected him.  But as he came to realize that it was his own death that made the people happy, it turned him around.  It made him realize that money isn't what makes people happy and grateful.  It is the people in their lives, the relationships they have with each other that make people the happiest and most satisfied.  There are other examples of stories like this.  The Grinch is one.  He thought taking away Christmas would rip the Who's apart.  It didn't because they had each other and the Spirit of Christmas lived through them and their love for each other.

If we want to be happy in our lives, we need to focus on those people who are in our lives at this time and be thankful for them.  Be happy and thankful for what they help us to be.  The people in our lives truly shape us into who we will be in the future days, months, and years.  I'm sure that the people I look up to and admire, look up to me for certain things about me that I bring to our relationship.  I am thankful that I will be with my children for Christmas, and I am thankful for friends that act like our family here in Illinois and welcome us into their homes for the holidays.  I am also thankful for a wonderful, supportive husband who wants my dreams to come true and pushes me to move forward in them.

I hope to always remember how thankful I am for the people in my life.  Even if I can't always be with my extended family, there are those around me that will welcome me in.

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness Acton Guide