The choice of happiness

Just like the countless clouds that have been covering the sky for weeks now, my life is filled with small and large moments that ultimately make up a jam-packed week.

This patchwork of tasks, appointments, dates and commitments seems to be interwoven with a subtle streak of bad luck this week. Nothing really tragic and if they were isolated incidents, you wouldn’t even notice them. But one day you pinch your finger, the next your bike is flat when you urgently need it, blisters on your feet from new shoes, a hairdresser’s appointment is canceled…

I try to take such things with humor or, to put it more honestly, I accept them, knowing that it will pass. Because there really are those times when things don’t go so smoothly. Life is not a constant line, but rather an up and down that behaves like a sine curve. As long as the amplitudes of the curve remain within limits, the whole thing is not tragic. And if you are aware of the ups and downs, you can accept them without immediately breaking out in panic or despair. It’s all a question of how you decide to deal with it. Even when things aren’t going well, you can choose to be happy. There are still enough positive moments to be happy about between the negative ones.

I have decided to be happy because it is good for my health.

Voltaire

I came across this quote from Voltaire by chance this week and it stuck with me because I see it the same way. You can find something to get upset about in anything and everything. In the same way, you can find something beautiful if you just look for it. We are constantly surrounded by both at the same time and can usually influence neither one nor the other because it is not within our sphere of influence. But we can decide which one we want to turn to. I think you get further with a happy heart, which is why my decision has always been to turn towards the positive.

Old school entertainment

Enough philosophizing. This week I bought a few books. I always collect them when I read a book tip somewhere and have a list of books I want to read. I realize that reading is better for me than consuming content online and on social media. When reading, an intermediate step is still necessary to process the words into images and thoughts in the brain. This personalizes what you read, you make something unique and individual out of it. And then there is the huge advantage of not being distracted by any advertising or content that you don’t really want to know about. I find this so annoying with social media that I feel less and less like hanging around there. If I read a book for 15 minutes, I’ve read a book for 15 minutes. If I want to have a quick look at something on social media, I’ve usually wasted an hour of my life on something I haven’t missed. So I’m now stocked up on literature for the next few weeks and am looking forward to relaxing moments on the balcony, by the Rhine or in bed.

Bad luck turned into happiness

This week’s photos are witnesses to the aforementioned happy moments that permeate life. Little things that catch my eye while I’m doing the normal things that everyday life demands of me. I’m always happy when I discover something like this and I really like these random pictures. And sometimes it’s the bad luck that makes such happy moments possible. As I mentioned at the beginning, my bike had a flat tire, so I went to the bookshop walking and discovered some beautiful motifs on the way that I thought were worth capturing. A perfect example of why you should also accept the negative things instead of demonizing them and getting angry or grumpy about them. An angry heart becomes blind, but a happy heart remains open to life.

See all Photos of this week