Tis the season to be weary . . . Fa la la la la… Right?

Well, maybe yes and maybe no. We tend to find a million things to do and expect ourselves to do them perfectly. We must find the perfect gifts. We must prepare the perfect treats. We must make the holidays beautiful and happy. Right?

Well, those are our expectations for this time of year. We may not speak them aloud, but there they are! We know no good will come of this, but we forge on with these expectations burning in our hearts and minds.

Certainly, it’s such a blessing to be the one who brings joy to a holiday gathering. Yet, have you noticed? If someone is not in the place of joy, no matter how nice the setting, they will not know joy.

Joy is a matter of choice. I cannot deliver joy and have it received without the willing choice of another to accept it. Perhaps my idea of joy is not exactly fun for them! Maybe they prefer to watch the football game where I would prefer to layout Tarot cards and get all intuitive and stuff. Does that make them wrong or me wrong? Nope. But my happy doesn’t make them happy. Their happy sure doesn’t do anything for me either!

So, this year, I’m going to do my best to be happy. If someone cares to share that happy, that’s great! If they don’t, that’s great, too! Even if someone chooses to be miserable and negative, they get to and I get to hold on to my happy. I don’t need to change them or coerce them into happy. I couldn't do that even if I wanted to. Happy is a choice. Each person’s own personal choice.

I certainly may choose to share some cookies or some treats of some sort. I certainly may choose to spend some time with friends and loved ones. Yet, each person may be going through something I cannot fix . . . Stress at work, family issues, financial woes, health troubles . . . Whatever the situation. I just know that even in the darkest times, people I know have found joy and lived in that joy through that darkness.

Most won’t. Most people prefer to stay stuck and recount their misery. Yet, I don’t have to. I get to decide to be in a place of happy and let them be where ever they choose to be for themselves.

My empathic heart wants to make them stop suffering so that I don’t feel their pain. My spiritual self allows them to be where they are out of respect for their power of choice.

Their relationships, their work, their health is their journey. I can hold sacred ground for them as they walk through difficulty. . If they request assistance in finding happy, I certainly can do that! I can open my heart and embrace them with love. I can help them re-discover what brings them joy by asking them about their flavor of happy. What happy/joy looks like and feels like to them. Maybe they will choose to do those things that bring happy/joy back into their world. (Or maybe they won’t. It’s their choice.)

So, for now, I’ll choose to be happy as best I can and share as much as others will allow. How will you be and express happy?