With all the social activities of life toned down and traveling taken off the docket, it’s been a rather quiet year here in 2020. And it has pointed up to me something rather startling, something I’m not sure I knew about myself until this year. I haven’t learned how to be happy.

I didn’t know it, but for quite a few years now, I’ve been depending on outside sources to make me happy: friends, people’s approval, and circumstances. When life was going well, that worked all right. But now, life isn’t going quite as well. The world is facing a pandemic, and we’re all feeling a little unsure about the way forward.

When I’m at my most balanced, I know that right now is the time for me to learn how to be happy, no matter what is happening outside. It’s the time for me to realize that my worth and my value come from within, not from what’s going on (or not going on, haha) in life.

At the same time, I know a happy life can still have sadness in it. As my family often reminds me, there would be no joy without sorrow. If I didn’t know what it feels like to be at an all time low, how would I know when I’m exuberant?

So maybe the word I’m looking for isn’t happiness at all; maybe it’s peace. Peace to accept when life is tricky and embrace when life is good.

Just a soliloquy of something I’ve been thinking about.

Anyway, I’d love to share with you a song I wrote (which does tie into this happiness/peace thing). My inspiration came from a flowery piece of scrapbook paper hanging on one of my bulletin boards that says “Bloom baby, Bloom.”

I thought that little scrap of paper summed up quite a lot, so I wrote a song about it.

I hope this song encourages you to bloom even when life isn’t certain.