Decide to Be Happy

The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; the wise grows it under his feet.

 ~James Openheim

A bed of "Ida Red' Iris growing at Argyle Acers, TX There is one blooming in my side yard- it is the 2012 inspiration for that section of the garden. When Gerry goes back to work I am planning a planting week to celebrate God's continued blessing.

The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life. I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy; I mean that if you are happy you will be good.

- Bertrand Russell

Happiness is a Serious Problem is the Dennis Prager book that changed my life. If the local Goodwill Store has sold out- Amazon carries.

 There are times when happiness will not be at hand. Life has those moments when she is so unfair, so cruel. Those are the times we need to be in prayer. At all other times, happiness is  a decision from which blessings flow.

My mother. Ethel Maria Sepulveda Lent as Navy WAVE occupational therapist

"What is the meaning of life? To be happy and useful."

- Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama

Yesterday, Epiphany, 3 Kings Day, was the holiday celebration of her youth in Puerto Rico. In counting my blessings- having her as my mother is always on the list. Her life was not easy. She rarely complained. She never ranted. She just got on with it. With a smile. Eager to be back in her garden when her "work" was done.
It was my mother's decision that as long as she had a garden, she could be happy. When that was no longer possible, she passed the trowel, so to speak. It became my daughterly duty to coax from mother nature as many bouquets as the season allowed. Her happiness, despite circumstances that lesser women would have sunk in despair over, was a gift that continues past her time on earth.