Friday's "Smile A Day"

So, I was throwing this HUGE Birthday BASH for Taiger (more on that later) and was planning to stay up late Friday and bake all the goodies. I KNEW it was going to be really fun, baking with my Mom and sister, and so I thought, "Yeah! THAT will be my 'Smile A Day' for today! I will take a picture of us baking and use that!" Well, night time came and I went to bake, and my mom and sister were watching a really great movie and asked me to join them. They said we could bake after the movie. Well, of course, I was too tired by the end of the movie, so we all decided to bake the next morning.

So, why am I telling you this?

I learned a great lesson!

You cannot plan in advance when you are going to be happy!!!!!!

You cannot do as I did, and think, "I will be happy when...." or "I will smile when....happens". LIFE is happy! And if you plan out when you will allow yourself to feel happy, you might just miss other happy times.

I have a dear friend from Latvia who I met in China. She was so wise and insightful, and PEACEFUL! She was always, ALWAYS at peace. Even when things were sad, bad, maddening,frustrating, she still always exuded a feeling of peace! One day she told me, "You cannot wait to be happy until your situation changes. You cannot expect your environment to bring you peace. You must have peace INSIDE."

I thought of that on Friday as I went to bed without posting a Smile A Day. My "happy moment" hadn't come. The thing I was counting on to make me smile didn't happen! So, what? I didn't feel happy all day? I didn't smile once all day? I don't remember, to be honest. I imagine I MUST have smiled! I MUST have felt happy! But did I focus on that? Did I appreciate the fact I was feeling happy? Did I NOTICE the feeling of SMILING? I guess not!

So, for my "Smile A Day" for Friday, I am posting the poster from the movie we watched. Not because the movie particularly made me happy, but because through that experience I learned something new about joy and peace and happiness, and THAT made me smile. :)