T-Shirts and The Hissy Hum of Happiness

A few weeks ago I was sitting at the dining room table at Carissa's house, listening to the hum of the baby monitor, checking my stats on Reverbnation. I noticed for the several hundredth time that my profile was 95% complete. All I needed to do was add some merchandise and I'd be magically bumped to 100%. So I designed a couple of t-shirts and now I am 100% complete and I feel quite, exactly the same as I did before....

One day I'm going to be walking on a beach in some obscure place and some dude will walk by with a faded Tim Pepper t-shirt and I will smile inside and remember that the thing I was most concerned with on the evening when that t-shirt was designed was that my baby girl was still sleeping quietly. No noise other than a soft, hissy hummmmmmm was emanating from the monitor and that made me happy.

Of course I'm not sure why anyone would buy one of those t-shirts but it's theoretically possible and besides..a man can dream can't he?

Getting Happy

You find life in the paper-cuts that happen while you’re filing all your ‘important’ information. You find it happening to you when your eyes are on the horizon. Life is right now. It’s whatever situation you find yourself in. It’s current. It’s relevant. It’s contemporary. Life is not what you will do or become. It’s not your job or your money or your relationships. It’s what you decide to do with everything you have or don’t have right this very second.

As for me…I’m getting happy. I’ve been depressed. I’ve been let down. I’ve been disappointed. I’ve looked for life in the days and years ahead of me. I don’t know how it happened but somehow I realized that all I have is right now. The past is six feet under. The future is anyone’s guess. If this moment were my last I would want people to remember me as a happy person who was a joy to know. So I’m getting happy.

My mother, who is a wonderful person, used to tell me that I could “get glad in the same pants I got mad in”. I used to get madder in my same pants every time she said it. But she was and is right. Sure, life isn’t perfect. I’m not everything I want to be. I don’t have everything I want. There are circumstances I can’t control. But, no matter what is going on in and around my life, I can choose to see the joy and the beauty that is happening everywhere.

If you see me on the street some day and notice that I’m a little down. Remind me of these words that I’m writing by telling me to get glad in the same pants I got mad in.