This Hour

Yesterday I was feeling sorry for myself because it was a dreary Midwestern January day, I’m still in holiday recovery, and I seriously dislike winter. I kept noticing a loop of this thought in my brain: “If I lived on the beach, I would be so much happier right now.” As I was pouting around my office with back-to-work blues and lamenting all the reasons I don’t live on the beach, I picked up a stack of old papers and a post-it fell out of the stack with these words on it:

Happiness, not in another place…

not for another hour,

but for this hour.

In my messy handwriting, I jotted down these words of poet Walt Whitman and underlined the word “this” twice.

As I picked up the note and read the quote, it really hit me.

I don’t remember why it resonated when I wrote it down, I don’t remember why I captured it on a post-it. But, what I do know is that yesterday was the day when I really needed Whitman’s wisdom.

THIS hour.

Right here, right now.

In the dreary winter, in the dark days, we can find happiness in this place, in this hour.

So after my wake-up moment with the post-it yesterday, I had a conversation with myself about “what would you do if you were on the beach right now Ginger?” My answers included: I would go for a walk. I would sit in the sun. I would swim. I would listen to the birds. I would see palm trees and flowers. I would spend the day outside being happy.

I realized that a lot of that can happen in the Midwest in January too.

So yesterday afternoon, I did go for a walk in the dreary mist. I did listen to birds. I did spend time outside. And after my walk, I was happier. Not Ginger-in-the-ocean-happy, but happier than I was before the walk. I can long for happiness, or I can create it. I think that is what Whitman’s timeless wisdom meant for me yesterday.

This week, let’s all try to find happiness in this place, in this hour. Not in resolutions, or what-could-be, or if-I-had, or if-I-accomplish-this-I’ll-be-happy. Let’s find happiness in this very moment right now, where we are, just as we are today.

I’m going to work on being happy here, instead of wishing I was somewhere else. It feels better already.

I’m on this journey with you,