How many times have we thought about being transported back to an
earlier point in our lives when things were much simpler and we were truly
happy and content? For many, somewhere
along the line that contentment and happiness disappeared.
Do you remember the happiness and contentment we felt as
children? All we had to do was get up in
the morning, go out and play all day and come home to eat and go to bed when we
were supposed to. There was also a
degree of contentment knowing that neighborhoods, in which we grew up, in many
cases, were true extensions of our family. Everyone knew each other and neighbors gave of themselves without
hesitation.
As we age and grow older and the world begins to knock us around,
and societal pressures change the dynamic of many neighborhoods, that security
and comfort we felt as children dissipates. In many instances we become insecure with ourselves and begin to
question our ability to cope with day-to-day pressures. We become jaded and forget what truly matters
in our lives.
Achieving happiness and contentment is all the more difficult as a
queer individual hiding in the closet or more importantly being a child, and
knowing deep inside they were different from the other kids, but not
necessarily knowing the root cause of that difference. From a very early age, confusion over not
knowing who they truly are begins to take root and causes one to go deeper
within themselves; creating a wall through which no one shall pass.
Doing so, combined with societal pressures to conform to an
artificial norm established by narrow minded people, deprives a closeted
individual of many opportunities to truly experience happiness and to know true
self contentment.
Coming out is such a liberating experience. It allows one to experience the joy of
knowing who they truly are. Happiness
and contentment flows from knowing you are living as the person you were
supposed to be. It allows us to
recapture some of the happiness that was somehow lost or never fulfilled as
children due to the ever-present knowledge that something was different within
ourselves.
If you are in the closet I encourage you to come out and experience
the wonders of knowing you! Make a
decision to begin to fulfill your life’s mission as the person you were meant
to be.
I had a terrible childhood, brutalized by a tag team of two extremely psychotic parents. There is nothing I care to remember about my youth other than the fact that I escaped mostly in one piece.
ReplyDeleteI know that I do my fair share of complaining, but in fact, right now is the safest and most content I have been in over 6 decades. My life and my relationships are far from perfect but I am HAPPY to get up each day and have the opportunity to deal with it all.
You are such an interesting man, I hope to meet you on this plain before we both transition :)
DeleteI have often posted on my blog that there is no such thing as happiness...only happy moments and if you're rich enough or smart enough you can program these to happen more often.
ReplyDeleteGreat post
saludos,
raulito
Raulito and GK,
DeleteHere's to more happy moments!!
Saludos ;>)
Jeff
to me happiness is those little moments that catches off guard, the moments that make you feel like a better human
DeleteI'm always in the pursuit of happiness, but maybe that is too broad of a spectrum. The question then ends up being what makes you happy, and I think you're right about it being those little moments that catches you off guard and makes you feel like a better human. I'd like to have more of those days.
ReplyDeleteWe all do :)
Delete