Ultimately we desire to be ‪happy and we enter into each of our ‪relationships and embark on all of these ‪‎experiences with the ‪hope and ‪‎expectation that they will expand and contribute to our ‪‎happiness. Sometimes we get in our own way because in our futile attempts to control ‪‎life we do not enter into spaces or seize opportunities because we ‪fear a particular outcome. Even if we are happy and life is going well we allow fear and all of his cronies to fill our heads with ‪‎What Ifs and because we cannot guarantee forever we let go of what|who is contributing to our happiness. But what in life is forever?

It is not forever spring
a woman is not my forever ‪‎pregnant
you did not forever crawl
your child did not remain a toddler forever,
you were not a freshman forever
and even if a couple is married for 50+ years, there is still death.

The key is to remain ‪‎present and fully immerse yourself in all of the infinite ways happiness ‪‎manifests in your life. Yes, life is filled with the ‪‎unexpected and it is quite possible that one of your ‪paths to happy changes trajectory significantly due to a ‪loss. In loss, happiness is not trying to recreate the same path with a new person instead it is to create a new path. The beauty of this life is that there are infinite paths to happy and many people who can join our ‪journey and expand our happiness exponentially. -Misha N Granado, MPH, MS