I hear the best advice comes from fortune cookies but I think it comes from Dove Chocolate wrappers…
“Everyone has a happy ending. If you’re not happy it’s not the end.”
This sounds great but is it actually true? How can everyone have a happy ending? What about the person dying from Stage 4 Cancer?
In a Disney fairy tale, this might be true but then again no it’s not true even for these movies. I mean the villains never get their happy ending. Ok sure that might be a little bit ridiculous but that’s my point.
So maybe they mean something else.
How could everyone have a happy ending?
What if it’s more about our internal situation instead of the externals? I cannot control what goes on outside of me but I can control what goes on inside of me. I can choose to make something good out of a bad situation.
This where I hear people talk about the difference between happy and joy. Happy is this fleeting feeling based on externals. Joy is the internal feeling that we can cultivate ourselves. Happiness requires something to produce that feeling. Joy is almost like a habit that we can develop over time.
I think the easiest way to develop joy is by practicing gratitude. When we choose to see what is good and how we are blessed, we cultivate joy which resultingly produces happiness.
So maybe it should read “Everyone has a happy ending…if you choose to be joyful.”