HAPPINESS

If it's good enough for Kobe Bryant's wife, it is good enough for me!

Happiness is the fruit of the desire and ability to sacrifice what we want now for what we want eventually.
7 Habits of Highly Successful People
Dr. Stephen R. Covey

Deferred satisfaction? A counter-cultural idea. I want it now! I want it all! I need; I want; I have to have. New, improved, cutting-edge... Market manipulation. Consumer beware--they've got your number.

Mine, too. Just stock it in TJMaxx or Marshalls, or especially Home Goods and I am on it! I need it. It is the perfect gift, accessory, implement, decoration... Last week I organized my gift closet. Well, not an entire closet, but part of one walk-in closet. I have stuff. Lots of stuff. Good stuff.

The problem was that I had gifts in the basement, the buffet, and in that closet. I didn't know what I had. I went shopping at home. I've got great stuff.

I have great projects. There is that purple tutu that I am making so that I can dance with my 3 year-old granddaughter. Usually she has me tie a scarf around my waist while she wears a dress or tutu, and then we dance. We spin and hop and wave our arms around. Sometimes we collapse on the floor. When I see her in November and she asks me to dance, I will whip out my purple tutu and dazzle her. She loves girly-girl things.

I have never been a girly-girl before, but I will be now. I have two granddaughters. And, I will be a tomboy for my little squishy guy. We can slide and kick and run and swing. There are mudpies and sand castles in our future.

I digress... Then there are the lovely sage green pillow covers that I am making for my daughter-in-law--in two textures and sizes. I have written 2/3rds of a book [with photos] on our trip with the three-year old to Paris, when she was just 2. I can hardly wait to finish the story and get it published at Ritzpix.

I buy lovely framed pictures on clearance at TJMaxx and Marshalls, remove the dicey picture and frame cards and photos and still life arrangements clipped from magazines. I don't even want anymore stuff on my walls, yet I persist.

I have two blogs and will amp up for a third that will be short stories that I have written and will write. I cook. I bake. For us and for friends who are sick, grieving, entertaining...

I have a cookbook with about 200 recipes and counting. I made personalized cookbooks for my daughter and daughter-in-law a few years ago, and keep updating them with more entries. I gave a wedding gift of a selection of my recipes--they have divorced and the bride got custody.

I keep flexible with yoga and I love HGTV. We just joined NetFlix and subscribed to the premium cable channels.

Is this happiness? Yes, it is. But it would all be so, so shallow if my hope and joy were not centered in Christ. There really is a God-shaped hole in each of our souls that can only be filled by walking with the Lord. I know that to be true.

As within, so without.