17/07 - Some Happiness in Madness

So when is enough, enough? Some recent events have inspired me, you could say, to write a piece on - as the title so clearly points out - finding happiness in this madness we call life. Or should I say finding a balance? Since I do love that word so much.
We can't be too picky in life about getting what we want, compromise is always key to anything, but in saying that we cannot let the world walk over us, so another question is proposed: how do we know when to make that change in our lives? How do we know when we should do the more selfless thing, and compromise, or look out for ourselves, and make that change in our life?
I guess, as always, this comes back to what would make you happy. It is near impossible to be happy making compromises all the time, but if you only look out for yourself you will quickly find happiness does not come so quickly either. So back comes that balance thing I'm always raving about.
As is the case with these difficult questions we face, the answer is never the same and it is not always easy, or hard, to find. It comes down to the situation, but most importantly - the person. As movie-bound as it sounds, somewhere inside the walls of our mind, the answers lie. And whether you stand by your decision forever more or come to regret it within hours, you can move on knowing that choice made perfect sense at one point and it all gives you something to learn from. At the end of the day we just have to make the best with the hand of cards we're dealt with.

31/05 - Mistakes and the Unknown

I heard a good quote recently: "Dear Lord, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference."
I'm pretty sure it's famous, but I'd never heard it before and thought it would be very apt for a new post, so here it is!
But, if I were to be totally honest, everything I could put on this post is in that quote. The real questions are - how CAN we know the difference, how do you know changing something is the right thing to do and is changing something making a difference? What makes us happy might not make the people around happy, and if someone is unhappy with you it can be very hard to be happy at all. So where is that magical power that can tell us what the "right" thing to do is?
A friend once said "Don't regret, because at the time it made total sense." and I'm always a great believer in "Learn from your mistakes, and the mistakes that have been made before you." I can be quite amazing what you can learn from other people, and there is a famous quote from some great person that went something like "We look for ourselves in people." and although it just sounds quite self-righteous, it's true. We always look for things in situations or in people that we can relate to, things that we know, knowing that that part of them/it is most predictable. Always scared of the unknown, and probably for good reason. It goes again logic to reach out to the unknown, for the simple fact that is IS unknown, but isn't everything at one point or another unknown? Isn't that how we get to grips with that we DO know? Isn't that how we learn? Mistakes ARE always going to be made, no doubt about it, but the key thing about mistakes is not to let them be made in vain. And always keen an eye out for that unknown, because sometimes it's the unknown that has the answers, and it's the unknown that can give you the difference between what you can change, and what you have to accept.