Chocolates Anyone?

Paige-Jennan Andrew reminds us that happiness is not out there somewhere in the future but that if we pay attention, we can find it in every passing moment of our lives.

As we grow older our lives tend to change drastically. Life becomes complicated and full of things we feel like we aren’t equipped mentally, emotionally or spiritually to deal with. Whether it is family issues, failure in exams, diseases, complications with friends or death, as life progresses it just seems to hand us more pain than we can ever begin to deal with. As we grow older the things that make us happy seem to decrease, while stress and worries await us at every street corner. As we grow older we forget all the things that made us happy when we were younger. We forget to appreciate the little things in life that made our childhood great.

For some reason we believe that these things can no longer make us happy and instead of appreciating little things that happen every day, we strive to achieve happiness in the future. If things are not great when we leave school, we believe that if we can get into a great university we will be happy. When that happens and we still are not totally happy we think if we graduate with honors maybe happiness will come. Three years down the road if we are still unhappy, we convince ourselves that if we could just get that perfect job with the huge salary and great benefits happiness must be part of the package and when happiness still does not come, we are absolutely, positively sure that marriage will mean happiness. Some people go through years searching for happiness and just holding on to the hope that it is really close, instead of realizing that pure happiness and contentment only come with acceptance of the present.

If we are able to truly accept our lives for whatever they are and appreciate the little things around us every day, happiness would not be something we have to work for but something we can already find in our lives. Loyal friends, having a job, being able to go to school, or having parents with whom we have a good relationship are big things that we take for granted in life. When we are young, we are much more optimistic and we find happiness in the simplest of things, but as we grow older and life gets very complicated, it is extremely easy for us to forget about the things that we have in our lives and instead focus on what we don’t have.

Today, after a pretty long and stressful day I was so happy to be home. Life hasn’t exactly been a box of chocolates lately and like the average person instead of focusing on what I do have, I’ve been focusing on what I don’t. As I walked into my house my grandmother and her brother sat in the gallery enjoying the breeze. Her brother is having surgery in two days and I can’t even begin to think of how they feel, as they both recently lost their sister to the same disease which he has. My granny asked me if I had anything nice to eat and I offered her chocolates. When I brought them the chocolates, their faces literally lit up. They both sat there quite content as they unwrapped and ate their chocolates. As I walked away hearing them opening the chocolate packs, I couldn’t help but feel happy. Hearing the crinkling of the packs reminded me of little kids opening their favourite snacks, in pure excitement and anticipation.

My mind went back to when we were children and regardless of what was happening that day in preschool, if someone gave us a chocolate or our favourite type of candy, it would have definitely made our day and we would have been more than grateful for it. It didn’t mean that all our trivial issues would be gone, but that chocolate would have helped us get through the day and happily too. As we got older, all the ‘chocolates’ in our lives didn’t disappear; what happened was that instead of us allowing these ‘chocolates’ to make us happy, we just put them back in their box and focussed on the negative and all the things that were going wrong in our lives. However, as we cross retirement age and realise the value and meaning of life, we again embrace those chocolates and like my granny and her brother, regardless of what is going on, whether it be surgery or death, all we need is a chocolate to make our day. Wouldn’t it be great if regardless of our age and position we could appreciate the little things that happen in life and be grateful for them?

We should really try to appreciate life for what it is and not wait for it to ‘get better’ in order to be happy. Everything that is happening in our lives at this very moment is happening with reason; nothing happens by chance, so we might as well accept it. When things get hard we have to learn to suck it up, put on our big kid underwear and deal with it. Also, life always dishes out chocolates, regardless of how small, when things are hard. It would do us well to eat those chocolates and appreciate their taste rather than stuffing them back into the box. Sometimes these little chocolates go a long way and help us to feel better regardless of whatever we are struggling with. Once we have an appreciation for these little chocolates and a lot of prayers, life will be much easier and we as individuals will be much happier.

Photo Credits
Bio Pic © Paige-Jennan Andrew

All Other Images from the Microsoft Clip Art Collection

First Posted At Paiges Of Life – September 12, 2011

Guest Author Bio

Paige-Jennan Andrew
I’m way too excited about life … I can’t exist without paper, pen and God. Writing is my passion … changing my world one day at a time 🙂

I believe in making a difference and leaving your mark everywhere you go!

Don’t Complain … Don’t Compare … Don’t Worry
Live!          Love!

Blog / Website: http://pgsoflife.blogspot.com/

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