Of Rainbows, Unicorns and Happily Ever After

Don’t you just wish that my title summed up life?
I know I do and more often than I care to admit.
Yet if there is one thing that I have learned over the past months and weeks is that any ‘happily ever after’ is entirely up to me!
That’s right.
Me!!!!!
Kinda puts a lot of responsibility on a gal you know?
Having the sole responsibility for my own happiness is a big deal.

It is so much easier when I can shift the responsibility to someone else to make me happy. Then I have someone to blame when life doesn’t work out as I think it should. I mean, it’s not my fault that things happen so I believe I should have the right to blame someone. Anyone will do. As long as it isn’t me.
At least that’s what society tells me I should do.
Never accept responsibility for the things I do wrong.
Point the finger at everyone who doesn’t live up to my standards of right and wrong.
It’s their decisions that shape my life – not mine.

Of course, there are circumstances beyond our control. We can’t control the actions of narcissists, Mother Nature, bullies or others that create an impact upon our lives. So it makes sense that I should be able to continue blaming them for everything that goes wrong in my  life ever after. After all, if my narcissistic, emotionally abusive ex husband hadn’t been in my life, I’d be living the life I’d always dreamed of right now. Right?

Wrong!
My life now is a reflection of the choices and decisions I have made up until this present point in time.
Is it full of rainbows, sunshine, unicorns and lollipops? Not all the time, but then too much sugar isn’t good for you. And if things were always going my way, what kind of lessons are there to learn?
Is it because of my ex-husband (or any other number of things that have happened to me over the years)? No!
Happiness lies within all of us. It’s just waiting for us to brush away the muck that is concealing it and bring it forth in our lives once more.
It’s waiting for us to begin being grateful that this morning saw us wake up breathing with a whole new blank canvas for the day ahead.
It’s waiting for us to forgive the narcissists, bullies, Mother Nature and other cruel villains from our past. It’s not asking us to forget. Don’t confuse the two.
When we forget, we also forget the lessons that we learned at the time.
When we forgive, we move on and find joy in the future.
When talking about forgiveness, the best quote I have ever read came from Robert Holden in his book “Shift Happens”

“For as long as you carry a grievance,

You become a casualty in your own war.”

– Robert Holden –

So do you long for a life of rainbows, unicorns, sunshine, lollipops and happily ever after?
Then reach inside and rediscover where your joy and happiness is hiding and bring it forth once more. It’s there. It just needs a little bit of attention to encourage it to stick around.
And rainbows? They’re always there after the rain. Dolly Parton once said that we have to put up with a little rain in order to find the rainbows.
And unicorns?
The Irish Rovers have a theory about why they’re a rarity these days.

However here’s a little rainbow to brighten your day.
It certainly blessed me when I took the photo. Unfortunately, although one side ended on the beach right below me, there was no pot of gold.
Well no physical pot of gold anyway. 😉

Blessings to you all!