I’ll let you in on a little secret. “Happiness is not a gift, it’s a skill.” (Secret #7 from “A Change of Habit”).

We know that we cannot change what happens to us. The only thing we do have control over is our ATTITUDE toward the situation. Choose happiness, but how?

One key to being able to opt for happiness entails “being in the present” or practicing “mindfulness” throughout each day.

Walt Whitman penned, “Not in another place…not for another hour, but this hour.”

This powerful thought centers on our being in the present moment where the happiness is. The “now” situation may not be perfect; the weather could have been sunnier, the meal could have been tastier, or the game could have been won.

If you are waiting for the PERFECT service, or events to turn out the way you envisioned them, then you are missing the happiness offered to you at that moment. Actually the moment was perfect all along, we just miss it looking for something “better”.

We all need to appreciate what we get in this life, after all, “it’s the best we’ll ever get!!”

Alfred D. Souza shares his “aha” moment,

“For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin – real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, or a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life”.

We waste so much time and energy wishing, desiring, and planning for something different that we lose sight of the gifts in front of us.

So stop waiting until….until you retire, until you finish school, until you pay off the house, until the kids leave home, until you lose ten pounds, until spring, until summer, until fall…..

Happiness is not a destination; it’s a journey through lots of “now moments”.

This week, grab hold of every moment and cherish it for exactly what it brings….without judgment!

Bloom where you are planted. “…not in another place…not for another hour, but his hour.” NOW!