Concerning Happily Ever Afters

As much as I LOVE a good happily ever after story I had some thought concerning them tonight. I don’t believe in happily ever afters. There. I said it! Don’t get me wrong, I definitely think there are happy moments and days. But, I don’t believe there is such a thing as happily ever afters, and it ends there. Let me explain.

Life is full of so many ups and downs. Life is full of trials and hard times. There is no escaping that. No life is perfect and even lives that seem perfect often have their own trials that go unseen to others. So, does this mean that I think we are all just doomed to have a bad life?! No, definitely not! It means that I think that we can all have a happy life, if we make that choice and if we decide to put in the work. A happy life is not a given, it is something that you make!

Making a choice to have a happy life is something I think we have an opportunity to do every day. It’s not something you decide one time and then that’s it: happy life. Every trial that comes your way will be an opportunity to make a decision to either be happy or go down a road of misery. The choice for me often happens at night time. I might have felt unhappy at how something happened during the day and instead of sitting with the feeling, I think of ways that I can turn it around.

Putting the work into your life to make it a happy one is just as important as the choice you make. I often study new parenting methods, better ways to communicate with my spouse, reevaluate the way that our home is run to see if things can be improved, hold my tongue when I want to speak with anger in hard moments, the list goes on! If something makes me feel unhappy, I make a choice to put in the work to change it.

Sometimes things aren’t that simple in life. Sometimes you don’t have a choice and I think that’s the hardest thing of all! When something happens you can’t change and have no control over. Those are the times when things can feel very bleak. That is when making a choice to focus on the good is so important! Focus on the things you can change, focus on the blessings that are in your life, and make it the best you can!

These are some things that have been on my heart lately. You can live your best life even when things are hard or seem hopeless. I don’t think a happy life is just given to us, it’s something we create every day and that’s something to be proud of!