Ive been missing… Ive missed all my writers prompts… I looked over this weeks and felt unprompted….

So I have been sick for a couple weeks… I am sick still…. I just didnt want you guys to stop checking back…. or to trigger any abandonment issues you may… ha ha

Happiness and Joy have kind of been my theme this week… you see… sometimes I can’t find my joy… sometimes it is buried down so deep under those days we don’t talk about very often… because when we are capable of talking about them… we remind ourselves not to dwell on them. The days that my head is clear enough for rational thought I choose happiness… misery is optional on those days… we all know someone who chooses misery… who is comfortable is wallowing in their own self loathing… or belief that nothing is good… that everything is against them… avoid them. It took me a long time to learn I could choose happiness… that wallowing in misery didn’t make me more poetic or beautiful… I’ve learned a lot… the hard way… Some of this I simply read somewhere… but I wish someone would have told me….

• There are no grown-ups. We suspect this when we are younger… we were right.

• Life is too short to have “Lunch” with people you don’t want to.

• Life is too long to not take care of yourself… or at least your knees.

• There are no soul mates… Not in the traditional sense, at least… and you will miss out on some near soul mates… this goes for friends as well.

• To stop spending too little time with the right people

• Chin Hair… it happens… and it isn’t the end of the world… Stop crying and Pluck that shit.

• Stop.. I repeat Stop googling everything you are worried about. It does not help.

• Start googling everything you are curious about… discover your passions.

• Eight hours of continuous… unmedicated sleep is one of life’s great pleasures.

Shout out to MamaKat and her awesome writing prompts this week!!!

When these things don’t matter any longer… My weight, my skin, my hair, my shoe size, my eye color, my height… and what really matters is the experiences… the sunset and sunrise… and music that moves you.

When you give up finding a perfect relationship… and really truly appreciate the relationships you have… your Mr. Amazing… your friendships… your family that you never cared to cultivate relationships with before… suddenly feel like roots… and stabling.

When having roots becomes more important than freedom and whimsy.

When you stop watching the news and watch your kids… Ironic that this happens when they need you less… because they are growing older as well… and you don’t want to miss it.

When being right is not longer your objective…  being right all the time, and refusing to see where other people were coming from… It’s a great way to be a pain in the ass… So while I do stand up for myself now when I know I’m right, I try to do it in a way that acknowledges where the other person is coming from… I try to accept the other person’s input and background and I try to understand why they feel the way they do.Unless they’re Tea Partiers… Then there’s no hope at all.

Money… Popularity… are not things you measure your happiness by any longer … money is nice to have, when you’re already happy… If you’re not happy… money might bring little glimmers of what feel like happy. But when you’re miserable… a new pair of shoes isn’t gonna change anything but the space on your closet floor… Trust me… I remember when I tried that trick… This thing called Happiness as you age gets counted in smiles instead of dollars… moments of peace and quiet… a warm cup of tea… the smell of fresh acrylics as they are slathered onto a blank canvas.

And when your knees ache in the cold and crackle like breakfast cereal.

All those things