unexpected

"When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down 'happy.' They told me that I didn't understand the assignment, and I told them they didn't understand life."

--John Lennon

What is the key to happiness? Is it love? Is it friendship? Is it family? Is it success? Is it doing what other people think you should do with your life?

I am currently in the midst of an interesting twist, as Lisa would say. Of course, the road you are on seems to be smooth, then there is a construction worker who has to go and jack things up. You have the option of continuing to drive down the bumpy road that you are on with the chance of ruining your car, or you have the option to turn down a different one and press re-route on your GPS. Your ultimate goal is happiness. Do you continue driving down the bumpy road that seems to be a direct line to the end? You cannot see if the road smooths out, or if it indeed does end up where you want it to go. There is also the option of taking an adventure and driving down a new road, one that has a lot of turns and detours to the end goal of happiness. Taking that road allows happiness to come to you because you have to make it for yourself.

There is a famous saying that I love. Gay Hintze (an elderly woman I knew very well) made it into a bookmark for me: You may be at a fork in the road but it is the forks in the road that make life interesting and lead us to new adventures. The journey is half the fun.

I really do feel that the journey is half the fun. It reminds me of To Wong Fu. Vida Boheme throws the map out of the window while they are trying to get to LA. On the way, they encounter things that they would never expect and touch the lives of a dinky little town. Yet, it is what they wanted in the end--the growth, the friendship and the happiness.

"So don't be afraid to make mistakes, to stumble, to fail, cause most of the time the greatest rewards come from the things that scare us the most. Maybe you'll get everything you wish for... Maybe you'll get more than you could ever have imagined... Who knows where life will take you. The road is long and in the end... the journey is the destination."

--Chad Fiveash