Happiness... is being outside!

Happy New Year, everyone! I just came back from the soccer fields this morning. It was glorious to be out and about doing my prayer walking again. Things have been quite busy since Thanksgiving, so this was my first time back at it in almost six weeks.

I can't tell you how much improved my mood always is when I've had the chance to get out in God's creation and spend some time alone with Him! I feel rejuvenated and revived by it, as cool water refreshes a parched throat.

Getting outside my four walls is something I relish, especially when we've had a long stretch of dark, damp days. I love this little casita, I really do, but spending too much time indoors has a way of darkening my disposition. These rooms have, by nature of their diminutive size, a knack for enveloping, for creating a cozy, snug haven. However... when cozy begins to feel more like confining, it's time to step outside and expand the gaze, to focus on things beyond.

This morning on my walk that reality became crystal clear to me. True happiness involves getting outside; not only getting outside in the physical sense, but also getting outside oneself.

I don't know about you, but when I spend too much energy and time focusing on ME, my needs, my concerns, my desires, it does the same thing to me as the walls closing in. My mood shifts. It begins to darken.

Tunnel vision has its place, I suppose. It can help lazer focus one's attention, define one's goals, cement one's determination, but it doesn't feed the soul like coming out the other side, and rejoicing at the wide, sun-drenched spaces.

No, to be truly happy, one needs to get outside... outside of self.

"But the gaze must be fixed somewhere... on something or someone," you say. True. I agree. But let that gaze fix on the One who gave us sight, on the One who gave us purpose, the One who has a bigger, better picture in mind than we could ever imagine.

Let us put our efforts and energy into helping another's view of the world expand and brighten. Let us be light to the blind and balm to the broken. Let us reach out... pray, serve, teach, minister, console, encourage... love others. In so doing we fulfill part of God's calling for our lives here on earth.

And as a beautiful byproduct of getting outside oneself...

we also find true happiness.