Mission: Explore Happiness

Have you ever met those people who are just smiling always? I sure have. I remember how I feel around them. Because they are smiling, I want to smile too! They are refreshing and pick up everyone around them. Are those people born that way? Perhaps. It is possible that there is something  innately inside of them that causes them to always be looking on the bright side, to see the world in rose-colored glasses, to see the cup as half full. BUT that doesn't mean that those of us that weren't born with a huge smile on our faces can't turn into someone like that! I am a firm believer that you are as happy as you make yourself out to be. If you want to be a happy person, you can be a happy person! It just takes practice like everything else.

I've always considered myself a happy girl, not one of those brimming over with happiness constant smile on her face and twinkle in her eye kind of girls, but a happy girl that more or less tends to see life a wonderful thing. Growing up, my family called me Sunshine. They said it was my middle name. I took that literally and would introduce myself as Laura Jean Sunshine Fisher! My gramma got a kick out of it and would have me tell all her friends my name. I've had a happy life full of wonderful memories with friends and families. My years have had very few real trials. There have been no serious health issues, no premature deaths, no huge financial burdens, no social scarring. I have been blessed with a good mind, strong body, and a desire to fill my life with wholesome things. My parents taught me righteous principles early in my life and raised me in a home devoted to learning of and serving Jesus Christ. During my youth, I found wonderful playmates everywhere I lived and formed fast friendships that taught me many of the joys of growing up. I got involved with many activities and forged a vast variety of interests.

College expanded my happiness even further as I learned the satisfaction of intellectual growth and independence. It was during these fabulous four years that I met and married my sweetheart, Dave. He was the funniest person I knew and had a smile and laugh that were contagious. Many of his strengths were my weaknesses, many of his interests things that I had never explored before, and the opposite was true for him. Together we found excitement in trading these interests and strengths to add to our reservoir of knowledge and expand our joy. When we were married, we made our family motto "Living after the manner of happiness" based on a verse of scripture from the Book of Mormon in 2 Nephi 5. In this chapter it talks about the followers of Christ and explains that their happiness came from serving the Lord, being educated in all matters, and striving to be industrious. We wanted that in our family as well and trusted as we applied all of that, our home to would be a place of happiness.

We have now been married for a wonderful 4 years! We have endured the hardest parts of medical school together and are still very much in love. We have an adorable little boy that is such a light to our life. Life is happy.

So, if I am happy, why start a blog about happiness? My life the last year has been focused on being a mother and the wife of a very busy medical student. Looking back, it was the best year of my life so far, and I've had some really amazing years! Yet I realized that a lot of what makes me Laura I have cut out of my life as I have tried to survive the storm of necessities that have hit one after another this past year. I want to reexamine what makes me happy, what makes me Laura.

So this year I will be cataloging my rediscovery of my favorite things, my exploration of joy. What better discovery is there than that? There will be no set rules to this blog. No deadlines, no boundaries. Just happiness. Enjoy!