Happy and Sad All at the Same Time
It's Okay Not To Be Okay
Recently a friend posted this on her Facebook status:
“this week has been incredible so far as ups and downs emotionally. tonight, my husband took me to Lancaster for an incredible dinner and conversation. it was marvelous. on the way home, we witnesed a dog being hit by a car.
I got to stop and hold the baby until she died a few minutes later. my heart is heavy now. she was beautiful in spirit and I got to take in her spirit as she passed. what does it mean? does anyone know? happy and sad all at the same time.”
My response – “Sounds like you live a spiritually aware life.”
If you’re not sad, depressed or scared (sometimes all three at the same time) on occasion, you’re missing something. You’ve got to have the lows to truly appreciate the highs. If we were happy all the time, we’d soon lose our ability to appreciate the feeling. If we never lost, we’d never learn to truly cherish.
Too many people these days feel entitled to be HAPPY happy all the time. And, if they’re not, it must be someone else’s fault and surely there’s a quick cure! (Pills for everyone!)
Self-help gurus bombard us with their smiling simple-minded platitudes…We’re all GREAT! There’s POSITIVE in everything! You’re more than OKAY…you’re EXCEPTIONAL, just the way you are! Oh. Please.
Life is more complex than that. Sometimes I’m not okay… and neither are you. And…that’s okay.
About the Author
Mary Schmidt Has Written 26 Articles For Us!
Mary is a proud Corporate America refugee, having long ago decided that quality of life is far more important than quantity of stuff. However, that said, she thinks money is a very good thing - when used as a tool, not a success measurement. In addition to writing for us, she blogs about business development and marketing at www.maryschmidt.com and about marketing to and by women at www.lipsticking.com. In her consulting business, her clients have ranged from mega-corps such as Hewlett-Packard to local Mom & Pops.
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Losing an animal companion – it doesn’t matter how or where or if it was yours – is so heart-wrenching. I still fill up with tears when I recall my dog Molly Mittens who died on the Vet’s table 5 and 1/2 years ago.
In my Buddist readings this weekend I came across a section about how we human beings expect everything to be pleasant but that’s not how life works. Life is filled with both unpleasant and pleasant.