Choose Happiness. Choose Cheese.

“If only….”

How often do we say that to ourselves, “If only I had____,”  or “If only _________would happen”?

Today is the day to stop waiting for something or someone.  There are no ideal circumstances. Most of life is dusted with a bit of chaos.  It’s how we respond to the chaos and the fragmentation that’s important.

It’s not about being saccharine or blindly optimistic.  It’s about owning what’s your’s–your issues and concerns–and not carrying what doesn’t belong to you.  You can’t control what other people think or feel.  You can control who you hang out with, how you spend your time, etc.

Today, choose some happiness for yourself.  For me this is trying a new cheese, butterkase.  Yes, it sounds a bit decadent.  I hope it is.  I saw it in the sales bin and took a small sample home.  I love cheese, but I also love the adventure of trying something new, something atypical–tasting a different culture.  I may not be ready this moment to hop a plane to Europe and sample some fromage, but I can still trek to my grocery store for a little adventure.

This may sound cheesy, but so often we get into ruts–the same old, same old–and that causes us some unhappiness.  Life gets blah…That’s when it’s time to try something new and it doesn’t have to be big…it could be as small as piece of gourmet cheese.

So often, food causes us stress and unhappiness.  We treat food as the enemy.  We buy into draconian eating do-s and don’ts that suck the joy out of eating.  Frankly, we are so privileged–we have more food than ever, little risk of famine and we still manage to take the joy out of eating.

We need to replace our “if only-s” with “what if-s”.  That opens up so much more possibility and frankly, fun!  Happiness is choice.  Don’t wait on your happiness.  Choose it today and everyday.