I Choose To Be Happy

There is another way to go through life besides being pulled through it kicking and screaming.

~ Hugh Prather

I choose to be happy

When I get cut off in traffic
When I don’t get that big raise
When the stories on my blog 
gather only a handful of reads

I choose to be happy

When I slip in the mud
during a hike in the woods
when I hear the pff of a flat tire
in the middle of a long bike ride

I choose to be happy

When the intimate relationship I long for
seems elusive and far away
and my friends are busy
and I’m by myself

I choose to be happy

Now this doesn’t mean
that when sadness
or frustration
or disappointment
or loneliness
arrives at my doorstep
that I slam the door
that I resist their visit
that I cover those feelings up
with sunshine and slogans

Instead
I greet them
I acknowledge their presence
I feel them
but I don’t hold onto them
I don’t let them take up 
a permanent residence
inside me

I let them speak
I offer them tea
and I listen
and when they’ve had their say
I send them on their way
because ultimately

I choose to be happy

a curious firefly, © 2022

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About a month or so ago, I started posting my writing on a platform called Medium. Writing prompts are popular on the site and often help to get the creative juices flowing. They’re a bit like my Curious Questions, only they often spawn stories or poems, not just comments. Writer Lucy Dan shared a prompt this week to finish the sentence “I Choose”. Her prompt, along with a recent reading of the book Untethered Soul, inspired this post.