Love and Happiness

            One of my fondest memories of growing up is something my mother repeatedly told me. Whenever she sensed I wasn’t happy she would say, “Don’t wait for your ship to come in, swim out to it.” Sure, it’s a cliché, but that doesn’t matter. It has taken me years of failures, missed opportunities, successes, and of course learning from my mistakes to understand what she meant.

            True happiness is a journey. Once you swim out to your ship, it can take you anywhere. But you have to be ready to get into the water. But be careful, it’s filled with danger. Most notably, negative thoughts and people that are unwilling to go after what they themselves want. So they try to bring you down and drown your hopes, dreams, and desires.

            If you want happiness you have to be strong enough to rise above the negativity and specifically define what you want out of life. And I’m not talking about material possessions. I’m referring to love. Love can be defined or interpreted many ways. Perhaps it is a special someone that you just hate to be without. A person, that when you leave them, your life seems incomplete. Maybe it’s a group of friends that you have shared the most intimate details of your life with. The kind of friends that would never judge you for past mistakes. Or possibly even a job in which you are serving a purpose that is far greater than you.

            Far more important than anything, you must believe that you deserve love and happiness. This is the most important part! You have to let someone climb onto your ship. You must be willing to let someone come aboard. You need to be ready. Let me ask you this. If pure happiness out of life is what you want, and you believe you deserve it, and all you had to do was tell someone what you want, would you do it? That’s a tough question. If you answered no, why not?!

            Finding what you want out of life is the easy part. The difficulty comes from swimming out and latching hold of what you want and what you deserve. Personally, I’ve come a long way over the past few years. Today I’m comfortable to say that I deserve love and deserve to be happy. I know what I want. And I am swimming out to it as fast as I can.

            I have obstacles in my way. For example, distance, personal strength and courage. But I’m confident that I will reach my ship. No one will stop me!

            What is stopping you from getting into the water? No matter what you have been through, you deserve to be happy! You deserve love and deserve to be loved!

            Spend the next 24 hours without saying anything negative. You will be surprised how your life will begin to change. Honestly, if you do, you’ve just taken the first stroke in the water to find love and happiness.

            Don’t wait for your ship to come in. Swim out to it.