Do I Deserve to Be Happy?

Do you truly believe you deserve to be happy? Discover how your everyday choices shape your life—and why happiness is something you can choose. I believe we have fundamentally mistaken ideas about life—at least from my perspective, and based on what I see around me: we tend to live our lives without conscious decisions. Somehow, this is just how we live. We don’t really stop to think about what we are doing or why—we simply do things because others do them, because that’s how it was done at home. So, without much thought, we recreate our lives based on the patterns we see around us. And yet, sometimes, we do stop and think. “Do you remember what you said to me on Sunday?” my friend asked me the other day. “I’m not sure what you mean exactly,” I replied. We had lunch together, talked for at least an hour, then went to the cinema—so much was said, I had no idea what might have stood out to her.

“You said that you deserve to be happy,” she said. “Yes, that’s true,” I answered. “Do I deserve it too?” she asked excitedly. “You do—and so does everyone,” I replied. “Then why has no one ever told me that?” she exclaimed over the phone. “I don’t know,” I said. “No one ever told me either, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s true. We are born to be happy. It’s not our duty to suffer through life. You can always decide what you take part in and what you don’t. Whether you live alone or in a relationship—good or bad—what kind of work you choose, what compromises you make, whether you take the easier path or the harder one, whether you settle or not, what price you are willing to pay for things—and I could go on. You are always making choices, whether you are aware of it or not.” “Alright,” she said. “If I deserve happiness too, then I will make decisions that make me happy.” And she hung up the phone. Everything begins with a decision… Everything begins with a decision. Even happiness. — Agatha Seymour /This piece was written years ago. As I return, it finds its place here once again, unchanged./

When All Seems Lost — and Even When It Doesn’t…

When All Seems Lost — and Even When It Doesn’t… As a writer, I read more than average. Not necessarily books that fall within my immediate interests, but rather those I can learn from, marvel at, analyze word by word, and sometimes even those that demand more effort from me than usual. That is how it is with Alice Munro. I bought my first book by her when she received the Nobel Prize. Then life happened, and the volume sat on my bookshelf—either I had no time for it, or it lingered somewhere at the bottom of my list of priorities. When I finally picked it up, I could hardly believe my eyes—or my reaction. First, I was utterly outraged; my blood pressure shot through the roof in an instant, and I almost started swearing in disbelief. I had barely skimmed the first few lines, yet that was enough to know: it was perfect. A true masterpiece. Excellence among the excellent. Every word reached the deepest layers of my soul. I was touched by its purity, its delicacy, the noblest simpli...

Beauty is life

I believe that life, by giving us free will, expects us to create beauty on this planet. Joyful things that are pleasing to the eye, that bring a smile to our faces, that awaken in us the sense of delight in life—the very feeling with which life (energy) created us. It urges us to realize things that require time, energy, and attention to bring into existence, accompanied by the intention to make the world a better place. It expects from us the ecstasy of beauty, from which every human being was breathed into the world. It asks us to remember! To remember who we are and why we are here! To find the courageous self that resides within us and to receive with an open heart the opportunities life places in our path. To grasp our individual truths, take our destiny into our own hands, and be conscious creators of our lives, our art, our thoughts, and our spiritual journey. To see both our outer and inner beauty, and to accept who we are! “All these things have you said of beauty. Yet...

Agatha Seymour's

Search This Blog