happily ever after........

Almost every fairy tale has a beautiful princess, a handsome prince or knight in shining armor, and they live happily ever after. That phrase echoed in my brain after something someone said to me in the last few weeks.

And so I pondered and pondered the idea. I decided that happily ever after is a little too broad and unattainable feeling to me. I was stunned by my diagnosis, but the surprise element to the cancer word has had me work on my perspective a lot. Plus I had couch time and bed time and porch time where I could sit still and really think about this.

What is happy? Am I happy? What can I change that will make me more happy? Is happy attainable? For me? For anyone else?

Deep ponderings......scary ponderings...... ponderings that require action.

So I decided - to look at it every day. Not in the happily ever after broad sense of the word, but in HAPPILY TODAY. That feels much better to me. I can make that fit. If something goes seriously wrong, and everyone knows it will, it won't ruin ever after, it just affects today. Guess what? This is exactly the same thing as take it one day at a time, it just feels different to be focused on happily today. If I can string a series of happily todays in sequence, I reach happily this week, then happily this month, and so on. Then the glitches don't feel so heavy either.

So that is where I landed in my ponderings. Yup, I am quite happy. I can decide to change things that will add to my happiness as opportunities come along. For me, happy is about accepting exectly what is happening right now. Keeping that perspective will continue to add happiness to each day.

Did anything change? Nope - still got bills. Still have a Man that sometimes makes me nuts. Teenage girls - check on that too. Medical issues - all of that. But I AM VERY HAPPY. TODAY.

Now for pictures of details that I have noticed that make me happy.


Jen's Garland. Going to do my own version in fabric for the porch. Think about prayer flags. Dominique Browning says it best so I am copying this from her new blog -- SLOW LOVE LIFE

"prayer flags do not actually carry prayers to gods. They are used to promote peace, compassion, strength, and wisdom.Tibetans believe the prayers and mantras will be blown by the wind to spread good will to everyone. The prayers of a flag become a permanent part of the universe as the images fade from exposure to the elements. Just as life moves on and is replaced by new life, Tibetans renew their hopes for the world by continually mounting new flags alongside the old. This act symbolizes a welcoming of life changes and an acknowledgement that all beings are part of a great ongoing cycle."

Gonna hang banners.

This little detail - We could have simply hung the spare key. But this is a tiny little detail image on my key rack. Took seconds, makes me smile. Those few seconds were not wasted. Take the time to add those touches -

I'll be doing some more work at my house. I am not waiting for happily can afford a new kitchen someday. I'm going with can happily change the pot rack today. Look out - there will be DIY coming over the weekend.

I spent Saturday with my mom - digging thru bins of fabric just like this one. We chatted easily - a love of fabric being very common ground. We also shopped for a new dress for me. I am 45 years old and one of the dresses I tried on showed some cleavage. My mother - always the mother - informed me that I needed to skip that since it showed way more boob than SHE was comfortable with. Even that made me happy - I have my mom still and there was no breakdown in that communication at all. HAPPILY TODAY.

Look at it from the two angles - can we reach happily ever after - or should we all focus on Happily today?

I have a beautiful life ---