Searching for happiness...

Changing the line up a little this evening...beginning the blog with an excerpt of tonight's reading...so that we can examine and discuss further. ' How happy are you right now? Do you even know? Most women know what makes their parents, partners, or children happy. But when it comes to an awareness about the little, specific things in life that bring a smile to our faces and contentment to our own hearts, we often come up short.'
Ain't that the truth? It seems as if I have spent many years falling further and further away from the things that make me happy. At least I think they make me happy...or they used to. I suppose after all this time, those things may have changed and shifted. I focus on Small...what does she need, what does she enjoy, what makes her smile? I focus on him, on my friends, on my family. I can't remember the last time I truly thought about what I need, what I desire, what I require. Let alone what I enjoy.
So let's start, hmmm? I enjoy my camera. I enjoy looking at the world and finding art. I enjoy allowing others to view life in the same perspective. I enjoy capturing time, a moment, a breeze, a thought. I enjoy the sensation of that feeling..when my brain and my eye and the universe all collide into one fleetingly random instant. And I am there..alive, aware, amazed.
I enjoy my daughter. She is true perfection. She is kind, and funny, and wise. She engages me in interesting conversation. She makes me explore and wonder. She teaches me compassion. She makes me want to do better, be better, live better, love better. She is the best part of everything good in the world and more than I could ever hope to be.
I enjoy reading. I enjoy baking. I enjoy shoes. I enjoy road trips. I enjoy singing loudly to a great song. I enjoy kissing. It seems as if I enjoy lots of small everyday things...I just never stop to recognize them. Perhaps this is what is missing in my heart...the acknowledgment of the wonderful things that I am surrounded by. Perhaps I need to focus more on what I have...what I know...what I love. Perhaps I need to let that be enough...
The beauty is that I am wise enough to realize that tomorrow...I may find enjoyment in something else. Something that I didn't even know was missing.

....Psalm 37:4 Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart.

Tonight I am praying for the clarity to reclaim the desires of my heart. I am praying for strength, for healing, and for mercy. And I am praying for all of you.
Goodnight and God bless.