HAPPY ENDINGS

I saw out of the corner of my eye the other day a text someone had written on linked in. I can't say I read particularly carefully, I was busy fast-forwarding somewhere as usual. But the thought stuck in this someone's post. She or he, kind of wrote that we have to learn that there aren't always happy endings to everything. There are a whole lot of shortcomings, sorrows, sorrows and sorrows that we have to accept and learn to live with.

I remember quickly looking for a "happy ending" to the deplorably black text, but found none. That was probably the whole point.

Then I rushed on towards one of the million musts of the day. But the post did not leave my thoughts. My brain popped questions all day. Do we really have to accept that everything is black? And if we do, how do we get back out of the basement? And when we have climbed out of the cellar, how will we be able to continue above earth with a pessimism as if it were the doomsday and the leechman and hell and his aunt who loomed ahead in the sticky fog of sorrows and sorrows.

Thirty years ago I learned the magic of brain training; mental training. To learn that one can control one's mood, one's thoughts, one's success and one's setbacks with the help of the power of the brain.

We all have our dark rooms filled with emotional debris. It could be a nightmare divorce that messes up, friends that let you down, the body arguing, a sick dog, a boss who is a pain in the ass or just wounds that never, ever want to heal.

I can't help but think what would our lives be like if we didn't have short, instant happy endings in every little episode of our lives? If we must always manage and accept and live in the black, the boring, the unattainable and cannot let in a ray of light, but here we must wander around in the mud of discouragement, anger and guilt - will we really survive it? What should it be good for? To stay in the black instead of striving to drag ourselves up the basement stairs toward the streak of light in the half-open door up there?

I believe that the world is constant. War and peace. Love and hate. Conflicts and reconciliations. Your own wars and others'. Your own love stories and those of others. You are responsible for your own happiness. No matter how hard life is, it is you who have to pick yourself up and move on. On the long winding road called life, things happen that sometimes make you wipe away tears, crack a smile and maybe even laugh. Short happy endings in your otherwise heavy existence. Life eases and you see the light.

I collect the small events in life. Every night before I go to sleep I think about what made me happy. Today, for example, we had an exceptionally fun day with lots of customers, guests and orders. In the warehouse, we have packed sick amounts of web orders. My dogs and I took a head rest in Sandhammarskogen instead of having lunch. The sun broke through the trees. I received a surprising call from an old love. I've been baking, writing, cuddling my dogs and paying bills. The electricity bills that showed up in the mail for my various businesses were delightfully low, and I cooked the leftovers from yesterday's Thai dinner without having to venture out into the pouring rain.

How can everything be so rosy? Trust me, it isn't. I have lots of worries and sorrows. Everyone has it – it gets us out of bed in the morning so we can solve problems one by one. What I mean is that if we insert a "happy ending" after each subproblem, life becomes a little easier for a while as we trudge forward in the tangle of happily ever after.

Love m.