The inspiration for today’s blog thoughts comes from Jay Armstrong, my son, Theo’s, impactful, senior year of high school, English teacher. Jay is the parent of three young children under ten, and lives with Ataxia, a rare degenerative disease that impairs him physically and emotionally. He also is the teacher that found time after school to have deep life-altering conversations with Theo (and other students.) I subscribe to Jay’s blog, Write on Fight on, and this week’s message sparked my message for you!
The holidays, with all the emphasis on gift giving, make one pause and ponder, what makes us really, lastingly happy? What makes our loved ones really, lastingly happy? Jay pondered the same question and his answer cinched my heart.
A couple of Christmases ago, as he was watching football with his seven year old son, a Lexus commercial came on TV. He says, a shiny black Lexus bejeweled with a huge red bow, received hugs and kisses from a handsome man as his gorgeous family looked on. The message telecast loud and clear to Jay: If you buy a Lexus this holiday season, you buy happiness. And it bothered him. And it made him think. So he began surveying others on the source of their happiness.
Can You Guess What Makes People Happy?
The first person he asked then and there was his son. “Heh, Chase, what makes you happy?”
“Spending time with you and mom.”
“Really?” Touchdown, Jay thought.
He wondered, what would a person with a terminal illness say about happiness? With deep trepidation, not wanting to be insensitive, he asked a friend and fellow teacher, living with (and eventually succumbing to) ALS. She too wrote a blog, Not Gonna be a Debbie Downer, chronicling her amazing fight with her disease. And her answer, no surprise, was:
“What I’ve found is connections with other people really make me happy. And in turn, time and experiences with them.”
Jay says the essential message he understood about happiness so perfectly in his blog:
“Deb confirmed what I already knew, what most of us know — that relationships are the fruits of happiness. A 7 year old boy, a dying woman, cemented such truth — we are fragile and finite, but in relationships we find strength, we experience forever.”
Your Takeaways
So I say to you, in all your holiday gift buying and preparations, remember—it’s the loving quality time spent with your dear ones that matters most.
Be generous with your heart and tell each person on your shopping list how much they mean to you—affirm the preciousness of your relationships, the source of long-lasting happiness!
Our dearest relationships are gifts that last forever.
Why not make this holiday the happiest for you and all your loved ones by focusing on what matters most—the people in our lives!
