Happiness is Homemade
Posted on 31st July 2022 at 15:11
Stood at the sink, looking out the window I breathe in the fresh air blowing towards me. A smile across my face, this is what happiness is, being in this moment, really taking it in. It doesn’t have to be a grand gesture, a big event or even involve anyone else. Being aware of how you feel, noticing what’s going on, just bringing you in to the present without all the noise can be blissful.
Today I feel good. I don’t regularly wash up. I feel lucky to have a dishwasher at home, largely as it saves me time but also gives way to the laziness of the modern world to cram a little more into the ever-busying day if we allow! Is there anything we can’t buy a gadget for? (I sense this should be another blog entirely, so I will stop there.) Sometimes the simplest things bring us the magic we look for in all the wrong places.
In the caravan, on a regular trip to Wales I look into the small sink, the bubbles overflowing, not too much room to move the plates and cups around, the water sloshing in and out of the bowl spilling up over the worktop, the little plates lining up side by side on the drainer as I rinse them under the slow flowing tap.
Do we really need an excess of ‘stuff’? A better house, a newer car, a bigger sink? Or do we get caught up in the material things all too often.
As I’m stood here washing up, I feel the warm breeze coming through the open window and I’m drawn to the caravan across the way. I love making up my own little stories.
Today I conclude three days in that the couple that reside here own this caravan, possibly come here for 3 to 4 months of the year before heading back to their home, still in Wales about an hour or two drive away, inland. They have been coming here for some years now.
It looks so inviting, a mixture of different planters lined up along the side of the Swift Bordeaux Escape. 11 plant pots to be precise, mixed colours of yellow and orange, pink and red and a dash of purple.
A welcome mat to the right, from the window I read as ‘Happiness Brigade.’ I liked that, but ahead of sitting down at my laptop to write, I walked around to the faded mat laid outside next doors caravan and was greeted with ‘Happiness is Homemade.’
Isn’t this so true, we can make our own happiness in the simplest of things. This isn’t to say we can’t dream of being someplace else and have different ideas for the future, it also doesn’t mean everything is perfect right now but what it does is enables you to enjoy where you are, fully and see this moment for what it is – stripping away some of that noise. Opening your eyes to possibility and seeing things you may have missed.
When we sit in this place more often, we can smile, we release, and we make space for what’s to come and that is where the fun begins! What makes you smile often? Where do you find yourself wanting to be alive? It’s in this place where you grow and when you find it, grab hold of it with both hands and feel the pure happiness in that moment.
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