Finding Happiness

It is good to be able to find happiness in situations whenever you can. Sad things happen often, and if we're not careful, we can get ground down by it.

Today, for instance was - or could have been - a sad day. Today my father Murray West, harness racing trainer, had his funeral. I had decided to think of this as a happy occasion, celebrating his life.

My father had lived a good life, for the most part. He was a good father and a good horse trainer. Most people who've been involved in the South Australian Harness Racing industry would know, or know of my father. He'd trained many good horses.

The latter part of his life was washed with sadness, that began with the death of my oldest brother, Jeff, in 1993. Jeff had driven Dad's horses and the two of them were a formidable combination. I feel that Dad's interest in living lessened after Jeff's death.

Life continued on though. Dad kept training horses, producing winners still, but his heart wasn't really in it. Then Dad's mental health began to wane, and he became more forgetful. Dementia set in.

This continued until Dad had to go and live in a nursing care because it was too hard for my mother to keep looking after him. This went on for over three years, until his health was very bad. He died just over a week ago.

Because I had decided to celebrate Dad's life, I thought about what I would like to read at his funeral service. I had one poem I had written about my dad, but when I re-read it a few days ago, it didn't seem suitable.

So, a couple of days ago, I thought about what I wanted to say, and I wrote a sonnet. It talked about wanting to keep happy memories of my father, as well as touching on the dementia that stole my father from me.

Several people spoke to me after the funeral, saying how much they liked my poem for Dad. This made me happy - Dad liked rhyming poetry and I was happy to be writing a rhyming poem just for Dad.

So, this was my way of finding happiness on this sad day. I'm still feeling sad about Dad, but I'm happy I was able to celebrate the life of a good man.

Finding Places Where Creativity Fits In

In the past few months I['ve been taking on more 'Community' type of things. It's partly because of what I'm studying at the moment, and partly because of my natural inclination.

I like to help people and I like to be happy. Helping people helps me to be happy, so obviously helping people gives me a double dose of happiness. So I've been getting involved in projects where others are helped.

This has introduced me to a broad range of people involved in the Community Service sector. An amazing thing I've found is that lots of these people are incredibly creative people. It might be so for a number of reasons, and it would be interesting to study this idea further.

One reason for this creativity might be because Community Services isn't a highly resourced sector, so workers have to make much from little funding.

Another reason might be that having more creativity leads you to considering life from a bigger range of options, and you have more empathy because of that factor.

I'm sure there are many other reasons, and I'd love to hear what other people think about it.

Please leave comments, I'm interested in taking this idea further - I'd love you to be involved in this with me.

So You Think You're Not Creative?

Can’t sing, can’t dance, can’t paint, can’t write creatively. Does this sound like you?

Do you ever wonder what you can do to express your creativity? There are classes you can go to for these things, but you may think it’s not worth it if you’re not interested in them.

A better idea for discovering your creative self is to explore the things you are interested in. For instance, maybe your passion is gardening. There are many ways to be creative in the garden. Topiary is the art of shaping bushes to look like other things – you could have an English box shrub that looks like
a crown for instance.

Or your passion may be for your beloved car. You clean it, drive it, adore it, show it off to friends and other admirers.

You can explore your creativity with your car. One of the things that excites many, many loving and creative car owners are the various things you can update and upgrade on your car.

There are many places you can go to for these kinds of things. You could trek around the place, or you could do it in the comfort of your own home. You may want to pimp your car by giving it sexier lights such as euro tail lights.

Change the look, make it your own. Make it Your Creative Statement!!!!!

There may be lots of cars the same make as yours, but you can make your car stand out and say – Hey Look at How Creative I Am!

Things My Life Has Taught Me #12

If you feel you’re in a rut, try doing something that scares you. The worst thing that may happen is the thing will go wrong. Most things won’t kill you or even cause injury.

Doing something that is scary, if it isn’t actually dangerous, can be a liberating experience. Be brave and give it a go, but being brave and being careful should go together.

Be aware of the danger and take necessary cautions, then do it The adrenaline rush when you finally do it is fantastic!

Things My Life Has Taught Me #11

Without challenges, you stagnate. People who never try things, never become the best person they can be.

If you don’t try things, you will always miss out on things and that will make you unhappy. You will always be getting bogged down with ‘If onlys’ and you won’t be moving on to better things.

Challenges in your life can bring you happiness that lasts.