That's me. I'm actually a pretty happy person - and a grateful one, at that. I feel blessed for all that I have - a nice home, loving husband, wonderful (most of the time) kids, and a job I enjoy. And now, in the midst of summer, I have more time to spend with my kids, more time to sleep, more time to do the things I love: go to summer camp, vacation with the kids, catch up on my TV shows, lounge by the pool, and so on. It's a pretty awesome life. No, it's not all roses and cupcakes: Sometimes my husband annoys me, sometimes my kids drive me insane, and 99% of the time, I hate grading. BUT...overall, I could not be more blessed.
So why read The Happiness Project?
I suppose part of me is always on the search to create a meaningful life. In fact, I do teach a course entitled just that. The other part of me just thought it sounded interesting and figured it would be a nice addition to the list of 25 books I plan to read this year.
I'm only on chapter one, which discusses how the author started clearing some of her clutter - visual and mental - and about her commandments. There's a lot more to it than that, but the biggest thing I took out of it was this: "Does this make me happy?"
And so, the purging began. "Does this dress make me happy?" Out went things I had planned to sell on ebay. "Am I going to actually do this craft thing?" Out went things I thought I would one day use. The hoarding/clutter does not make me feel happy. I unburied things from my closet I forgot was there. What in the world? I'm nowhere close to done, but I can see the floor of my closet, so I think that's a pretty good start.
I gotta say. It may seem silly to some, but man, seeing that cleared space made me happy.
Of course, I really only cracked the surface...but at least progress was made. And that, my friends, makes me happy.
