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You know what I’ll do if I’m feeling crabby in the morning? I’ll put on the Pharrell Williams’ song, Happy. Everybody knows it. It’s a great song and it makes me feel good … like a room without a roof!

Why? Why would I do that? I’m incredibly busy and my plate is almost always overflowing. Do I actually have plenty of time to listen to music and dance around in the morning? Not really.

But it makes me happy … and that’s important … so I make time.

Here’s what got me thinking about all this. I was reading one of the daily quotes from Abraham-Hicks, and it kinda smacked me up side the head.

In part one, I outlined the problem: The undisciplined use of electronic technology takes away from face to face human interaction time … and that is not the path to a happier, more fulfilling personal and family life.

• The trend is clear. 86% of adults own a computer vs. 8% in 1984.
• 75% now have an internet-connected phone.
• 55% have a tablet. 7 years ago, nobody
• Two BILLION people sign on to Facebook and Instagram each month.
• 7% of adults used social media in 2005 … 65% today. It’s 90% among 18-29 year olds.

The rest must be Amish, ‘cause from what I’ve seen, it’s 100%.

That’s the context. Here are the problems … gleaned from Dr. Mercola’s website:

Here’s a riddle for you.

How is it possible to be more closely connected with more people across the planet than at any time in human history and be less connected at the same time?

Actually, it’s no mystery. That’s the very result we should expect now that the majority of our connections are electronic, fleeting, and superficial.

These days, you can be in contact with thousands of people without having a true connection with anybody.

I think just about everyone has a problem in their lives they think they’ll never be able to resolve … something that’s truly intractable … something they’ll just have to live with.

For me, like a lot of other people, that was the inability to lose weight and keep it off.

And it wasn’t as if I wasn’t trying. It wasn’t as if I was eating a lot or being undisciplined. I went four months without eating any sugar, no fruit, and no refined carbs. I exercised. And I lost a lousy seven pounds.

A lot of that has to do with the fact that I’m allergic to more than 20 foods. I’m full blooded Italian, and I can’t eat tomato sauce! My immune system is hyper-vigilant, and I trigger an inflammatory response at the slightest provocation.

So, I was discouraged. I wasn’t resigned to the fate of being overweight, but I wasn’t really seeing a pathway forward either.

You can learn a lot about life from watching water flowing in a stream.

Most days when I’m out walking in the park, I just enjoy the fact that the creek is there. It’s pretty and the burbling sounds nice. But one day, I just stood there and watched as the water passed by … gravity in action.

Water flows downhill. It FLOWS downstream … by definition. If you want to give it human characteristics, it has an intention … to get to the sea, and it does what it has to do to get there.

A range of physical, psychological, and interpersonal stress symptoms experienced by a woman who attempts to perform perfectly in multiple roles or conflicting roles or goes overboard in one role.

Do you see yourself in that description? I looked at this and decided it wasn’t really me … but it wasn’t that far off either.

I read on.

When I was 5 years old, we went on the first vacation I can remember. Our family didn’t vacation a lot, so this was a really big deal. There was only one catch.

There’s really no such thing as a balanced life, at least not a perfectly balanced one.

And what’s more, you wouldn’t want one. And you know what? I’ll go one step further. A balanced life isn’t for everybody.

What?!!!

Little kids say some funny things. And sometimes, our little ones say some really profound things without even knowing it. My grandson said something last week that really got to me.

We all want to be happy. Then, why are so many of us not as happy as we could be or just plain unhappy?

Is it because things haven’t worked out for us the way we’d hoped … or is it because we’re not consciously choosing to be happy?