10 Sep Life is great and terrible; happiness is accepting this!
Learn to live with and love ALL of life's best and worst and you'll be learning to enjoy happiness.
Consider the following…
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Life can be terrible at times
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Life is amazing at times
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I'm way too serious at times
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I can be quite funny and fun at times
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There are moments I regret being weak
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There are days I'm proud of my courage and strength
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I have so many faults and weaknesses
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I have so many strengths and attributes
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I'm often disappointed in others
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I'm frequently amazed and impressed by others
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The world can be cruel some days
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The world can be kind and compassionate
And all of these are true!
I could have kept going, listing many, many more of my personal and the world's complex characteristics but I think you get the idea; and the point I'm trying to make is that although these might at first seem incongruent or incompatible within the same person or within the same reality…they're not!
This is life…wonderous and terrible.
This is people…selfish and selfless.
Happiness, I believe, is openly and honestly accpeting the realities of all these (and other) statements. Happiness is recognising the complexities within ourselves and others and the world at large and noting that for all the bad there's good, for all the pleasure there's pain, for all the love there's hate.
Let's face up to the bad; let's not forget the good.
It's all there; we can try to deny some of it but we'll only be frustrated when it rears it's ugly head. So, me thinks, it's better to face up to the cold hard realities AND the warm wonderous realities and accept them for what they are.
When we do, we'll enjoy much happiness and give much happiness. So here's to yours : )