If You're Happy and You Know It...

You know when it's a good day, just as you know when it's a bad one.  Bad days happen, but when the bad days outnumber the good, it's time to reflect.  Why?  What makes a bad day?  Rain?  Snow?  Traffic?  Things you can't control?  You have the power to change certain elements of your life, especially if those (controllable) things make for one bad day after another.  I am a very happy person these days.  My day so far today has been wonderful.  I woke up at a normal hour after enough sleep, enjoyed two cups of good, strong coffee with my husband, a breakfast of one egg, over easy, a toasted whole-wheat English muffin, and half an orange.  I read the stories in the newspaper that I chose to read, read two more chapters in a great book, gave the gym forty-five minutes of high-speed (for me), sweaty walking (bring your iPod or phone to listen to favorite tunes - times flies!), and worked on my book, just writing and writing whatever came to mind (revision comes later).  My house is clean, the laundry is under control, and I'm planning dinner.  I have friends who envy me for leaving a job I no longer loved, for leaving a toxic work environment where grown men acted like ten-year-old boys.  They say they could never do it.  Look, I can't say it hasn't made a difference for us financially, but we're surviving, and we're happy.  If we had to pay off our mortgage tomorrow, we could do it easily, and still retain 75% of our savings.  Why?  Because for the seventeen years we've been married, we have saved aggressively.  Hey, I know the wolves are out in the woods, but they're nowhere near our door.  If you're miserable more often than not, it's time to plan for a different life.  What in the world is stopping you from pursuing your dream?