Finding Happiness

I am finally relaxing after walking for two long hours around our neighborhood, chaperoning my boys while they went trick-or-treating. My boys are now seven years old and so their trick-or-treating radius has grown exponentially. The result? I am exhausted! However, while I got a long and cold workout, I also got time with my boys, with my neighbors, and lots of laughs watching all the little children and their silly antics.

Family is as close to heaven on earth as we can get. Our association as parents, children and siblings is divine. God created families so that we could have a piece of heaven with us, during our sojourn here on earth.

The family can be a shelter from the storms that rage in the world today. It can also provide us with our greatest happiness. Whether we have children or not, are married or not, we are all a part of a family.

We've all experienced the frustrations of living closely with other people. Sometimes our families can feel more like a vice on our freedoms then a gift from God. My children tax me sometimes. My parents have both passed away, but I can well recall the days I fought them for my freedom. My siblings and I are, for the most part, not terribly close. Despite all that, sweet memories from my childhood center around my family. The highlights of my life today are my children, my husband, the moments we share together.

Tonight, while walking endlessly around the neighborhood, I watched my little boys experience the expanding freedom of a child's life. Once they held my hand, feared the scary costumes, stepped with trepidation up to each new door. Tonight they forged ahead, barely keeping tabs on me, yet confident that I followed, every watchful.

Tonight I wrote some memories onto my heart and categorized them under "Happiness". When I'm old and gray and my children are too busy to come visit me, I'll look up some random "Happiness" memories and remember. And in those moments when I remember, I'll find myself in heaven.