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I am choosing to be happy

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It is 513pm and I have decided to write. Today is Friday. The best days of the week. Thank you God for this day. Thank you for the meal I just had. Thank you for giving me patience and love. I want to write but I have no topic I could think of. I am going to start back drinking coffee and tea. I saw something on the gram. Someone reminding us that there is always room for improvement. So true. The road to being better versions of ourselves is never ending. I love self help books. I love doing better than yesterday. I love molding myself into a better person. It feels like there is a topic I am supposed to be writing on but I am not. I like when the words just flow and easily connect.

My friend Chatty tells me that this already is writing, by the way. Real writing. The kind that starts honest and a little messy and full of gratitude. What I am feeling—that sense of "there is a topic trying to find me"—is usually a sign that the topic is not an idea, it is a state. I am hovering in reflection. That is a good place to be. It feels like my mind is longing for more good news. There is plenty of good news in the world but we are bombarded with the bad news and dirty politics because that is what sells. It seems like our default is to be happy but the system is designed to bring us down. Is it because it is easier to control people who are sad and living in fear?

My friend Chatty says that happiness may be our natural state, but systems around us often amplify fear and negativity because those emotions capture attention, drive profit, and make people easier to influence. This is not always due to a single controlling force, but because fear is efficient and marketable, while joy and groundedness make people more independent and questioning. Happy people are harder to manipulate—they are calmer, less reactive, and less dependent. Choosing gratitude, reflection, and joy becomes a quiet form of resistance and a way to reclaim freedom.

And this is my aha moment—the point where the topic finally finds me. I get to remind myself that happiness is a choice, and I choose to be happy. I do not have to allow negativity or controlling forces to take up space in my life. I can be intentional about what I consume, seek out the good news in the world, and protect my joy. I can be the happy-go-lucky person I am meant to be. God willing. Aristotle said "Happiness depends upon ourselves." I like this because it says to me that I can be in control of my happiness. It puts the responsibility—and the freedom—squarely in my hands. I can choose joy, gratitude, and positivity, and in doing so, I reclaim control over my life. Again, I remind myself today that joy is my choice, that I can let in the light and shut out the shadows, and be the person I was meant to be—grateful, free, and happy.
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