Me First!

For nearly forty-five years, I have wandered this beautiful planet attempting to make all the folks around me happy. I sacrified my time, my tears, my strength, my efforts, my heart, my feelings, and my life in the brass-ring hope of making sure everyone else was doing super!

It took me an awfully long time to realize that there is a huge difference between being generous and being self-abusive. We have a lot of odd terms in our house. Most lean toward humor and/or sarcasm, as that is how we deal with life's curveballs. One of my favorites is not self-deprecating, but "self-defecating". We are not allowed any "self-defecating" remarks. Literally, we cannot sh#$% on ourselves. And we are not allowed to let others do it either. My grandmother, Poppa, used to say, "If Poppa ain't happy; ain't nobody happy." I think it's a little more in-depth than that ~ although if Poppa wasn't happy, there were no happy people for miles!

I think it stems from within. If you cannot find happiness within yourself, it doesn't matter what good deeds, generosities, kindnesses, or affections you show. You will not find happiness around you. It begins in your own heart. It starts with each beat, it then pulses through your being, oozing from your pores, and simply manifests itself in your actions. Once you find contentment in your own skin, the world around you definitely takes note and begins to change too. It is a beautiful series of events.

Sure, it makes you feel all warm and fuzzy to perform a positive action. Know that that warmth and fuzziness is magnified ten-fold when that action is performed with a happy heart, instead of just a forced compliance. It takes a long time to learn this lesson ~ one of life's tougher ones.

The good news, though, is as I watch my children and my nieces and nephews, I think they are learning this earlier. They are not selfish or greedy, but they are seeing that a happy inside paves the way for a happy outside. So, today, I wish for you a little "Me First" action. You cannot control the appreciation or action of others ~ so focus on you. Focus on what makes you happy at your core. When you find that, make a little room for that every day. You deserve it!

But . . . me first!  :-)