Happiness

Rachel sent me a quote by text that I need to place on the tip of my nose and leave there right in front of my eyes for the rest of my life.  She did not tell me who said it, but it sounds like a Dr. Laura.

"It is not the man's job to make the woman happy.  It is her job to make herself happy.  His job is to make her happier."

Think of what the world would be like if we all gave up letting others control our emotions.  Actually, no one has control over our emotions but us.  It is a choice we make to have our feelings hurt or to laugh or to cry, to be offended, to be insulted, to be flattered, or to be honored.  We make the choices every minute of everyday.  If we have a bad day, sure it is nice to complain and blame it on others, but we have no one to blame but ourselves. 

I spent the whole day looking for a stupid tax return, which by the way, was right where it was supposed to be and I looked there at least 60 times.  You could say, that it was becoming a rather frustrating day, but when I looked in that same place for the 61st time, pulled out the envelope again for the 61st time and then realized what it was, I had to just laugh.  Sure I could have been upset, blamed it on Kreed or some ghost.  But there was no reason why I had not comprehended what it was other than my own blind stupidity.  I just sat on the bed and laughed.  I could have sat on the bed and cried, but laughing is so much more fun. 

I had a student today who was driving me nuts.  She is so literal!  It is like working with an eight-year-old Dr. Brennen.  She will not do anything without being told precisely what to do and if you don't give all the instructions she wants, she will not fill in any missing areas with the obvious.  Any distraction is definitely a distraction and you have to start all over with explanations and directions.  Aaah.  I was about to get really frustrated, but I thought, "Why?  It won't help her and it certainly won't help me."  So I just smiled and repeated everything I had said 3 times before and low and behold, she got it on the 4th try.  She was happy and so was I. 

There are times that Kreed teases and I choose to be offended.  What good does that do?  I feel awful, he feels awful, the rest of the family feels awful.  He is going to tease me again...soo...why fight it.  Why not tease back or just change the subject.  Laugh and he will laugh and then my family will laugh and we will be happier and I am sure that my husband will try even harder to make me happier if I am happy more times than not. I know I don't want to try to cheer him up much if he is in a bad mood or ornery mood.  Why should I be surprised that he doesn't want to cheer me up when I am moody?  Who wants to be around anyone who is moody, depressed or ornery? 

So I am going to try to get that quote (Oh, Rachel texted and said it was from a BYU talk she was listening to) tattooed on my eyeballs (metaphorically speaking) and I hope I can be a happier person more of the time!  Hope you all try to do the same.  It would be nice if the rest of the world our do so too.  But we can't let them affect our happiness now can we.