Tags
About Time, About Time review, being happy, Depression, finding happiness, finding joy, Happy Song, overcoming abuse, quality time with kids
Friday night I was blessed with an unexpected down moment to spend some quality time with my kids. Ryan (16) hung with me for as long as he could stand it and went to ‘chill out’ and decompress. Seth popped in the movie we had in from Netflix called “About Time” and before we knew it he and I were having a sincere discussion about what makes us ‘happy’.
Time means a lot to Seth. Time in every aspect. How much we spend, how much we have, when we run out. Seth appreciates time as a precious and valuable commodity. Often I have to be conscious about this fact for Seth because clearly his main ‘love language’ is quality time. Time makes Seth happy.
Unbeknownst to me Seth has been writing quotes as they come to him and he shared this one with me the other day:
LIVE this day and be ‘done with it’ because tomorrow is a new day. 
Love him.
Little did we know the movie we were about to watch would demonstrate this philosophy. About Time is about this family that has a peculiar gift, they can travel back in time. They can’t go forward and they can’t go somewhere they haven’t been but they can go back and have a ‘redo’. The ‘take away’ from this film is that it is UP TO YOU to enjoy your life…one day at a time.
Take a moment and watch the movie trailer:
Sure there are days we choose to be sad, upset, angry or just melancholy…sometimes we need to let the emotion have its course…but the fair warning is if you allow yourself to stay in that state it will begin to erode your spirit and block out the light of the joy that God provides every day.
What God has created to amplify our happiness is constant. The moon, the sun, the mountains, the beach, a child’s smile, etc. It is our choice to see it, embrace it.
No one can ‘make you happy’. No thing can ‘make you happy’. Only YOU can make YOU happy.
Something that makes me happy is music and dancing. Since I was a young girl (as early as 3 years old) I would rock in a rocking chair and sing my own music as I rocked. Later Friday night videos came out and I would rock as I watched the videos…letting my mind go and imagination take over as the lyrics and beat took me to new places and adventures that only an imagination can bring. Later someone invented the Walkman and this took me through my teen years into high school where I learned to ‘escape’ in music.
I rocked into my young years as a mother, alone, without a baby in my hands to relieve stress. I let the music take me as I zoned out and let it go.
It’s been years since I’ve rocked in a rocking chair. But music has not ceased to be a consolation. If I realize I need to find my ‘happy place’ I put on music I know will redirect my thoughts and remind me that this life is so short. Why waste it being upset and down?
This quick (only 1 minute) dance instruction for Pharrell’s “HAPPY” song makes me smile on this Monday. I’m going to learn this dance! 
I pray your Monday is HAPPY!
Blessings
Shannon
Just Show Up 