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Thread: Are You Happy?
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05-18-2008, 06:29 PM #21
I’m very happy and content with my life, but then my wife and I have made a life that not only requires constant change but embraces it. We were together for about a year and had talked about our dream and goal of sailing around the world for a lifetime of adventure, so we decided to start living it. We put the house up for sale, sold most of our stuff on ebay and gave away the rest to family and friends. We bought a repossessed boat in Connecticut, had it trucked down to Florida, and are now living on it and getting her ready to sail around the world.
I’m 39 years old and had made a decision to start living my life the way that I wanted to live it instead of waiting for retirement. I gave up on that career and working all my life type dream long ago. I met and married a woman with the same life goals and motivation to live our dreams, but it wasn’t a matter of luck. We both believe that the universe gives you what you ask for, and as far as we are concerned, we are living proof of that philosophy.
To find out more about us, you can read our website (www.remetau.com).
Don
Great post by the way.
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05-18-2008, 08:45 PM #22
That depends entirely upon how much I've had to drink :-d
but seriously, yeah, I'm pretty happy. I mean, I have my good days and bad days like everyone else, but on the whole I think I'm doing ok. I have a decent job to earn money, a decent car to drive, a decent house
to live in, a decent wife to ****, and a few decent razors to shave withso life is good.
I agree with the previous poster who said that you get to pick your attitude, that is so true. In modern society it is easy to get hung up on what you have not yet accomplished and what you haven't yet aquired, and so feel unhappy with life. I am guilty of this, too, and have to remind myself, "hey, I'm not doing so badly, I have everything I need and many things that I want, I am reasonably healthy and sane, I've really got nothing to complain about." Spirituality plays a big part in my satisfaction with life, but that's another thread. (think JMS had a poll about this back in the day)
That said, I am not yet a rockstar-billionaire-astronaut, so I haven't accomplished all my goals.But I'm only 26, I may get there someday.
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05-18-2008, 09:19 PM #23
I'm 41 with a common law wife of 12 years and a newborn son.
Happy? Yes, immensely. Satisfied? Not by a long shot.
I should qualify and say that my life has never been about the destination, but the journey and so when I see myself lacking shiny car achievements that others have obtained, I can sometimes get disappointed with the measure of my travels. I would certainly like to be able to afford to further my education. I would also like to be earning more of a living in theatre, but under my own conditions which seems to be the sticking point. The remaining institutions i our society are a pretty closed shop and rife with internal politics. I would want to avoid that if I could.
As I remain on track, I can feel equally satisfied with the knowledge of the less than tangible, life lesson accomplishments under my belt. Through my ceaseless observation and interrogation into the nature of the human condition as an actor, I have become privy to a host of foibles which the flesh is heir to and have worked to avoid those traps. I have also searched for the root of contentment and although it has sometimes eluded me, I at least know better where it resides than I would have otherwise. Validator and the Little Man are a big part of that.
X
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05-19-2008, 12:31 AM #24
44 years of confusiun on this marble has taught me to accept alot of "junk" and make the best of it. Married 17 years (where does the time go?) with a 13 year old daughter... (someone help me !!!!)... I've seen places and done things many don't have the oportunity to try so I consider myself fortunate to have the life I've been delt. At the moment I'm both happy and irritated at where my life is taking me. I love my new career direction... just not the cost of getting it
My wife and I got into the conversation "If you could change part of your past..." and after thinking on it a while, I can honestly say I don't think I'd change a thing. The things in my past are what has made the person I am today. Each event (good and bad) has taught me something, without that experience my life would have taken very different turns. And who's to say if it would be better or worse?
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05-20-2008, 12:39 AM #25
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- Apr 2008
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Thanked: 953I don't feel happy but reading some of these reminds me of how fortunate I have been. It's interesting that at some low points you appreciate things more because you get clarity, and at points where you are just plugging along with nothing going too wrong (me right now) you can be quite miserable.
I have a pretty successful career, which I always wanted, but I don't really like it and it is so time consuming I don't spend nearly enough time with my kids and wife, and the clients and the demands often make me depressed, and since I'm at work from say 9 am to 10 pm most nights, if I'm down at work I'm just down because work is all consuming. And while it's well paying, I live in an area where a mortgage is a life time committment, and you never really "make it" even if you do well, so I've really felt like a mouse on a treadmill for a few years, particularly as my committments just keep increasing and I just keep working harder.
And my youngest daughter just came down with a blood condition that is scary as hell - she doesn't clot internally very well, so the wrong internal injury could be disastrous, though in many cases the condition just goes away on its own, so we may yet be in luck. And it's something you live with but just have to be careful. But knowing my daughter has a very real achilles heel makes me very sad - I think nothing is so humbling as realizing you can't protect your kids from everything. But as I was at the hospital with her today I saw a kid on the floor with a helmet, probably to protect him from himself when he has seizures or something, who was severely retarded, and it was pretty clear that with perspective it's a miracle how healthy my family is (and particularly me with my unhealthy work life), and that I have a lot to be thankful for.
So I guess I'm not happy, but realize I have much to be thankful for, and am approaching a point where I will try to make some life changing decisions to increase my time for my life at the expense of my career potentially, and I suspect when I get there I'll feel happy again. I think for me happiness has been when I've felt I was driving my life rather than my life driving me, but it's harder to do that than I thought when I was a kid. And as everyone with kids knows, it's not really your life anymore so you have to make compromises you wouldn't make as a young man.
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05-20-2008, 03:59 AM #26
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- May 2005
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- Virginia
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Thanked: 79I have good days and bad days, but happy?
I'm not even sure I really know the meaning of the word these days. I just shoot for the best I can do with the choices I have made, be they successes or mistakes, and keep going.
I just wish I had a better average with success....and that when those all important decisions come around, I would have the wisdom to make the right choices. All too often the people one hopes to consult for the biggest decisions are not around when it is time to make them, and then are quick to point out "I wouldn't have done that" after it is too late and the decision(s) have been made.
I think I would be "happy"(er) if I knew whatever it is I am doing at the moment was the *right* thing for me to be doing. Not talking about right and wrong so much as long term good decisions.
I'm pretty happy when I'm in the air, most times, and sometimes (believe it or not) as far away from civilization as possible, eg camping/hiking trips,or.....
John P.
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05-20-2008, 05:09 AM #27
Happy? No. Numb? That's more the term I'd use for myself.
I'm 44, 45 in October, and retired permanently. I lost my left eye at the age of 29, legally blind -20/200 with a contact and glasses, but I kept on plugging away.I have the same condition in my right eye as I did in the left. Last December the Ophthalmologist told me that the retina was detaching in the left eye (3rd time) and he was NOT going to touch it.
At 40, I had a bicycle accident which broke my left leg, tore the rotator cuff in my right arm and almost died in hospital from breathing complications.I now have to walk with a cane,and have neuropathy in both legs, but I am able to walk. I've been diabetic since the age of 10, and on an insulin pump since 2001. Recently I found that besides reoccurring tendinitis, I also have carpal tunnel and diabetic neuropathy in both hands. I have also been diagnosed with severe depression, (who woulda thunk it?), and despite ALL of my health problems, I'm still fighting Social Security for disability.
I'm unmarried, which at times I'm thankful for, but at other times gets me down. Mom was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer's and is getting noticeably worse every day. I rarely leave the house anymore, feel like a hermit.
When able to work, I did like my job. I started working for the company at the age of 16 and worked for them off and on until they closed the doors on January 1, 2006.
Unhappy, no, things could be worse, but I'm not "happy" either...so numb is about the best way to describe my situation at this time in life.
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05-20-2008, 03:51 PM #28
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- Jan 2008
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- 138
Thanked: 4May sound selfish and stupid but no. I am not happy. Am I grateful for what I have, yes. I have a great job, make good money, don't work hard. Great wife and would take a bullet for three out of four of my kids. I am healthy. Like AF said, I am living somewhere just for the living. My reason for drawing breath in the morning and everything else I do is to be in the mountains and rivers fishing. I live in one of the most desolate wastelands in America, when it comes to those things. No mountains no rivers, no trout and unbearable heat most of the year. I feel like I am on another planet. I hate my good paying job, it bears no interest to me and sucks the life out of me every day. My goal is to go live in Montana or some montainous state and go fly fishing several times a week and spend the rest of the time making a living outside. About all I can do to accomplish this now is make as much money as possible to make it possible. AF, I understand about your dad. I took care of my disabled brother for six years, finally had to put him in a group home a couple of weeks ago. Figured it was better than him keeping me. I am blessed, but not happy.
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05-20-2008, 04:41 PM #29
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Thanked: 586Damn I could certainly see an argument starting here.
People have so much yet they are left wanting something else. That grass sure is green over yonder, eh? Sure everyone has problems. Wanna compare lists? I guess it all boils down to what is your definition of happy. I can smile to my girlfriend or play with my dog. I'm not yet homeless and I can still eat, drink and breathe. I can still make things with my hands. Shit there are days that I hate my life and I wish it would hurry up and end. I guess there are checklists we all have but the things on those lists are not my gating items to happiness.
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05-22-2008, 08:23 PM #30
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- Apr 2008
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- Co Durham UK
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Thanked: 15I was happy, until last night!
It was 11.40 pm and I was at work when I was struck by the most excrutiating pain I have ever known in my life. I was doubled up with pain that emminated from my left kidney and practically passed out withthe pain. The pain did make me vommit.
Net result I was eventually taken to via ambulance to A & E where I was dosed with 2 lots of morphine to kill the pain.
The cause was a little old kidney stone and I now sit in hospital awaiting an operation.