“If you want to be happy, you have to be happy on purpose. When you wake up, you can't just wait to see what kind of day you'll have. You have to decide what kind of day you'll have”. - Joel Osteen

I brought my mom to the hospital today for a procedure and had a bunch of idle time on my hands to think. It got me thinking about happiness. It seems like it should be so easy to just be happy. For me it has always seemed to be much, much harder than that and it often seems like a chore. 

I tend to think that some people are naturally happy people and that they just wake up happy in the morning. I think that for most of us, it is much more of a struggle.  I do know that it is easy to offer up a smile to a stranger, to hold the door for someone who is walking behind you. I know that by doing simple things to make others happy, it makes me happy. I also know that by compounding all of these little, simple acts, I am developing the habits that will help to make me happier, more of the time.

I just wish that sometimes it came a lot easier.

- abstract image of a glass door to an office in the hospital.