The Happiness Project

"Nothing can bring you happiness but yourself."--Ralph Waldo Emerson

In my life, my decisions and choices have been guided more by the ideas of success and failure instead of by happiness and attitude. Now that I am sharing my life with someone, I am learning more and more blatantly everyday where my faults lie in the way I have been thinking and dealing with life. It's funny what happens when you live with someone else and share your lives together--the reflection of yourself you see in them can be quite eye opening...

And so, I am trying to let my guard down more these days... trying to not let me prickly thorns reach so far out, and embracing more of the opportunities I have in my life instead of measuring my life in my successes and failures. I am not a package of grades or percentages but a person with moods, attitudes, and ideas and I need to work on what I do with those moods and attitudes and ideas. After all, Clint fell in love with me for how I make him feel, for who I am, and not for my grades, job accomplishments or bank accounts.

So now that I've survived the past few months in my privacy coccoon, I'm trying to let my guard down more and remember just who and what Marge is. Sometimes I feel like I've left the best parts of me back in the U.S. and instead I arrived with two pieces of luggage and a protective shield instead. I've decided to break that down and reclaim the best of Marge that I remember by remembering what I am grateful for, where my ethics lie, and what my heart loves.

During this reflection I came upon "The Happiness Project" Blog. Inspired by this blog and a few others, I've decided to start a Gratitude Blog. Here I'll write about the things I am grateful for and/or what I have learned. And so far, I have learned that I need to get back to the core of who I am and hopefully, in this quest, I'll let down my ready-to-pounce guard and get back to a zen-state-of-mind...

http://www.happiness-project.com/happiness_project/2008/10/paradoxes-of-ha.html

*my own commandments to come soon*