Happiness Starts With Me!
Estimated reading time: 1 minute, 16 seconds
One day at a time, I am sporadically experiencing happiness anew.
My pilgrimage has been slow but steady.
As many of my widow friends have commenced dating or re-partnering, the question of why I am not pursuing that option intensifies.
I do not contemplate either option as a solution to the loss of my loved one.
Life’s lessons have trained me to understand that happiness begins with me!
Happiness starts with you. Not with your relationships, not with your job, not with your money, not with your circumstances, but with you.
Before meeting Jan, I focused on my well-being, not on replacing my imaginary girlfriend.
Had I met Jan before learning to live alone and still be upbeat, we might not have fallen in love.
Having mastered the activities of daily living alone, journaling about Jan, reading, and walking, I have achieved contentment but not happiness.
But as Sigrid Nunez writes in The Friend: A Novel,
You can’t hurry, love, as the song goes. You can’t hurry, grief, either.
Jan’s love is still with me, and she guides me thru the whitewater of my grief journey.
The Jan Lilien Education Fund sponsors ongoing sustainability and environmental awareness programs. Gifts made this month; I will match dollar-for-dollar. All donations are tax-deductible.
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Today, I joined my friends Maryann and Gary, fellow widows, and walked on the Delaware and Raritan Canal towpaths at Colonial Park.
The rain avoided us, and we had a lovely time and had Gary's brownies to enjoy!
Friendship is the foundation of a healthy and happy life.
