What Could Better Than...HAPPY?

Okay, I know there are so many people out there in the Universe than have been seeking happiness, and I'm here to tell you...if you haven't found it yet, don't give up!

Happiness is not as elusive or as mysterious as you think. It's not a person, place or thing. It's as simple as deciding one breezy morning, while you're sitting at the kitchen table (or, in my case, the art desk) that you are going to be happy. Make it your goal. Make it a plan. Put it on your calendar. Write it on your agenda. Create a world of happiness within you, and create a world of happiness around you. Let me share my experiences of how I decided to be happy.

I'll preface this little missive by letting all of you know, point-blank, I have been absolutely, positively miserable. I started out my work career calling people to collect money that they did not have and could not steal, beg or borrow. Miserable job. I had to support myself, and these jobs were available, which is what we adults do. We take whatever jobs we can. My education was in journalism and communications, but that certainly didn't help me with crying single mothers, suicidal fathers and countless threats of bodily harm from business owners who did not want to have their construction equipment repossessed, but also did not want to or could not pay for it. Along this decades-long path, I got married, divorced and raised my child alone, and I became even more depressed and miserable. I was miserable with everything. The pressures of having a small human I was totally responsible for, having jobs I was always making people feel unhappy and not having any happiness myself slowly drained my emotions and my mental well-being. Way down deep inside, I knew I always wanted to create art. I would doodle constantly, I'd steal a few hours on a weekend and just make something. I felt such joy.

Also decades later, after doing all the right things, I decided that I wasn't going to be unhappy any more. I had remarried, but it was not going well. I was in another state unfamiliar to me, and although I should have been happy because of so many things, I was not. I was creating art, I owned an art gallery, but it was a business, and as I later found out, much like my marriage. So, with five dogs, a huge U-Haul and a determined goal in mind, I moved back to my home state and began the process of learning to be happy.

I was a traditional mosaic artist for years. Breaking thrift store plates and gifted broken cups and bowls, and putting them back together as art fulfilled my creative need, but I wanted to make mosaics that were even more unique. I also realized, I wanted more than anything, to make other people happy, too. I wanted them to have smiles when they saw my work. I wanted to create art that brought inspiration, even for only a moment. So, I chose paper as my medium. Scissors and X-acto blades became my tools du jour, with paper cut into bits of blues and reds and greens, and made into whimsical designs. Not only was I creating art, but I was creating recycled art, using thrown-away magazines to cut my colorful shapes from, using the paper as my paint. I began to show my unique art at art festivals, in galleries and gift shops. I was committed to staying true to my New Life Plan, and now, seven years later, I'm still outrageously happy with my "job." Being an art gyspy, setting up tents and enduring rain and heat, traveling to shows and coming back to make art, and then do it all over again. Believe it or not, yes, creating my art and selling it to people that love it, that makes me happy.

So, in effect, I have created my happiness through creating my art. It gives me purpose and keeps me striving to create even better art. I am truly doing what I love. I am inspired every day and, as an artist, I'm not sure there's anything better. I made the decision to be happy, even if things did not work out. It is really that simple.