We have so much to smile about

Her name is Helen Ambojnon.  She lives in Banaue, Philippines. 

In one conversation she changed how I think about life.

I went to see her on one of my trips back to Banaue.

She wasn't home when I arrived at her house so I sat there and waited for an hour or so.

When she came home she was smiling.  Just that is amazing to me!

If you look closely at the photo you can see that she has hard-working hands that show years of laboring on the rice terraces.

Her life hasn't been filled with trips to the mall for cinnamon rolls and designer coffees.  

She lived her life the hard way, honest hard work in unrelenting hot sun.

We talked about this and that and the conversation turned to a discussion on what makes people happy.

She made a simple comment about happiness that stunned me and caused me to lose my voice for a few minutes.

She said, "Us Philippinos have nothing but we are happy because we learn that happines comes from within ourselves"

When I heard that my thoughts instantly turned to pondering the life of the average American.

We live with so much "stuff" here in the USA and yet people don't smile as much as they could.

How is it that we have so much and yet so many people are still not happy?  I can't answer that myself.

But, I sure took a look at my own life and realized that I can learn a lot from Helen and her family.  

We often take life too seriously.  We worry about bills, relationships, the car, the house, the cell phone signal, the email apps, the latest smartphone, the stylist shoes and whatever.

What does it take to discover your own inner happiness? 

Perhaps simplifying your life will help.  

Us Americans tend to collect stuff.  First we fill our houses with things that make us happy.

When we run out of space for things we rent storage units and continue filling those up too.

We file our things away day by day and accumulate more things.  

What would happen if we stopped focusing on things and instead applied those same accumulating skills to building deeper relationships?

I'm betting that we would smile a lot more, laugh frequently and love each other forever.  

Simplify your life, take time to smell the dandelions, stop and enjoy the warm breeze as it messes up your hair, don't worry if you get dirt under your fingernails, sit on the sidwalk and watch the ants carry stuff back home.  

Let's smile more America!  We have so much to smile about.