...sings it's own happy song

...and the song it sings when happy is the one that delights everyone around them. Don't you love that smile on the groom's face as the bride comes through the door?  Or the screaming of toddlers when they see Dad's car in the driveway?  Or a spouse's tearful eyes when a soldier gets off the plane and walks into their waiting arms?  

Well, I know what two circumstances make me happy.  I'm fairly independent.  My personal freedom makes me very happy (although it also results in loneliness sometimes).  I just like coming home some days and closing the door, knowing that I've shut out the world completely and all those opinions, suggestions, and arguments the world is so frequently shoving on me.  I also like that I'm responsible for all my decisions...though I complain about this a good bit.  But it is really a good way to live.  My successess are mine and my shortcomings are too.  I live with a motto in my heart, "at least do no harm" to anyone else.  

Another thing that makes me very happy is being in a serious friendship with an awesome gentleman.  I just feel more secure when I have a 'boyfriend.'  Since I'm not likely to marry again, I'm still on my own, responsibility wise, when in a relationship...but there is a nice benefit to getting to bounce some thoughts and ideas off someone who is going to be around for a while and has a little history with me.  

And, I'm just one of those ladies who really needs to be the special ONE in a gentleman's life.  Just the two of us...man/woman.  Rarely am I jealous...I can allow other women friends in his circle, but the most intimate of conversations, sharing the deepest thoughts, and expressing  affection beyond a simple hug has to be saved for ME ALONE...and I'm happy to reciprocate!  All of this may not a marriage make; but it requires absolute faithfulness for me to be happy.  

Those are the two things which make me the most happy...and do you notice something significant about them?  They are perfect contradictions!  "Stay close; but leave me alone."  I suppose that could confuse a man!  Such a man would confuse me.  

Look at your own answers to the question of what makes you the most happy.  I bet most everyone said "family; kids; grands."  But who can drive you up a wall; steal your last inch of patience; and break your back with swift assurance?  Of course:  family, kids, grands!!!

It is so true that the greatest gifts are wrapped in the most prickly paper and ribbons.  The most valuable possessions cost the most to protect...and bring the greatest grief when lost.  These circumstances require a happy song in our hearts!

So our happiness is truly a little nut-shell definition of the life in each of us.  Why a man could be so important to me?  The desertion of a Dad; a fiance; a marriage troubled by emotional meanness, and the all too early death of a good husband.  Most of this happening before 40 years of age.  What joys I miss the most; I want the most.  What I lost, I want restored.

Perhaps, there are a few people reading this post who are still hanging on to the platitudes of popular psychology:  You can't be happy with others until you can be happy alone.  OR  You can't be together until you can be alone and make it.  REALLY?

Well, lets apply the logic:

• You can't hug your grands until you learn to be happy without it.
• Toddlers need to learn to sit quietly when Dad comes home before they are allowed to go bezerk with sheer joy.
• Begin your marriage in separate bedrooms; learn to deny your heart's desires, then you can understand it better.

Pretty crazy, huh. Yet, people who are alone, broken, or misguided are told daily to get over it by learning to enjoy their circumstance.  REALLY? (Misunderstood scripture often quoted here by the pious)

A heart that sings...what a beautiful thing indeed!  Persons who know how to care/love/or protect with total abandonment.  They know to say 'yes' when opportunity knocks on the door.  They fear not the pain or loss or the abject silence of loneliness.  They dare to walk where happiness leads.  They are those who inspire us most...the encouragers who know how to help from their own deepest experiences of love and loss.  They are the rock in our lives.  Rocks covered in soft, green mossy softness.  Life can break a heart, but love can heal it....suture the wounds; bind with the cleanliness of clarity gained; hold a hand and whisper soft words during convalesence.  Yes, the happy heart is capable of all this.  Just try to hold a happy heart at arms length.  Their strength will encompass you quickly.  In fact, a happy heart can unnerve the calloused one.  They're just natural healers; counselors; confidants.  You can trust a happy heart.  The happy heart may not divulge the intimate details of their happiness; they just ooze restoration and confidence and peace all over the place.

So what makes your heart happy?  What's your song?  Deny the discouragers.  Every week, I have to be around a few folks who refuse to be happy with me that a wonderful man is my friend.  How dare I have what they have!   Or maybe don't have?  They seem to need me to be the black and while negative to their colored photograph.  But I won't be!  Neither should you be.

Happiness is worth the world.  Worth writing the song for.  

Sing it out, sing it out!