Quote of the Day 1/9/14

“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.”    [Elisabeth Kübler-Ross]

__(insert suggestions here)___

In an attempt to name this post appropriately, I found myself on Google quest, searching through dictionaries, posts and blogs. When the dictionaries failed me, I turned to good old trusted Wikipedia. 

Originally this post was titled “content” but then Wikipedia defined bliss as: “Bliss is an emotional state that is characterized by perfect happiness (feelings of enjoyment, pleasure, and satisfaction,” I couldn’t help overlook the words “perfect happiness.” This led me to attempting to figure out what exactly “perfect happiness” means.

This led me on another Google search, to find out what the 1037345836430480 Google users around the world believe perfect happiness is. 

Let’s just say I found answers from one extreme side of the spectrum to the other. Infamous Yahoo! Questions had a user who posted the question “How to acquire perfect happiness?” and which the best answer chosen by the voters was “drugs or brain damage…. Happiness is a mish-mash of emotions, and it is loosely defined by its symptoms.” 

Google provided me with 41 million (to be exact) pages of results and skimming some of the pages, words such as nature, family, good book, house stood out, there were also debates of “god exists” and “no he doesn’t.” 

Even the Wall Street Journal had an opinion on the matter and  put a monetary value in the mix and reported that “the perfect salary for happiness is $75,000.”

Now I don’t know how happiness can be found through money or books or trees but I do know that no matter who you are, where you live and what you do, all you want at the end of the happy is to be happy and you want to be the real kind of happy. 

Perfectly Happy. 

Always Happy. 

Am I right....? 

Jan/Feb/March/April Update?

I've been gone for a while and I wish it wasn't so. There has been so much I have wanted to write and share but frankly, theres just no enough hours in the day. Things have been so chaotic and busy that last time I checked, I was unwrapping Christmas presents and now I am 4 weeks away from being done with my second year of school. Crazy huh? 

Despite all the busyness life consistently entails, one thing has been present... every. single. day. Ready for it? Well, joy. Pure, unending, consistent joy. The greatest thing I have learned is to find yourself knee deep in the so many errands, assignments, and duties but to have a calm and joyful heart. Never in my life have I been happier or felt so fulfilled. Here's a brief example from today: I spent a few hours going to the bank, to the store, and other miscellaneous tasks and as I drove with my windows down, the 73 degree sun and breeze shinning down, the only thing I could do was smile and laugh. This is the day that the Lord has made, and it was just perfect.

fear less, experience more

     Midterms are finally over and I can finally write a little bit again about something that has been on my mind over the past few days. I love Colbie Caillat... especially a lot ever since I saw her in concert at the House of Blues in Anaheim this past summer. Something about her, she is so calm and collected and so genuine about what she rights. One of my favorite songs of hers is "Fearless."  As I have driven to work lately, I have listened to that song and it got me thinking about what it means or what it is to fearless. I think that when we hear the word "fearless" we think about someone that is not scared of anything, as the dictionary defines it: "lacking fear" or "without fear." We can look at people we know or have known or even perhaps learned about and label them as fearless. We see such courage and strength in these people and wish we could be like them.

     I believe that it is impossible to be completely fearless, but I do believe that it is possible to fear-less. Even the strongest, bravest, biggest people have fears of some sort, but they don't allow themselves to be controlled by their fears. We all have many fears: fear of getting hurt, fear of knowing the truth, fear of rejection, fear of public speaking fear of heights, fear of bugs, and the list goes on and on. These fears hinder our ability to act in the way we ultimately wish we could. We don't go after the job we want because we are afraid we might not get it, we are afraid of traveling because we afraid of heights, we are afraid to talk to someone because they might reject us or perhaps on the flip side, we are afraid to be ourselves because we are afraid of what someone is going to think.