I wish I had it to do all over and know what I know today.....I never would have married, only had my 2 kids...or maybe more! LOL! At the time I decided I didnt want anymore cuz I wanted out of my marriage, and didnt want to put any more kids through it! Left my husband once, but because of kids and finances, I went back...still with him, but we live in a house like sister & brother, just sharing space! LOL!
So I spend all my time at the restaurant and with my kids & grands....that is what makes me truly happy
Tonite we are decorating easter eggs, and tomorrow evening, we are going to the movies....YAY!!!
I do wish I kept in touch with some of my friends & family a bit more, but am trying to get back in touch now!

http://debfrompa.proboards.com/index.cgi?/

I think everyone has regrets and sometimes things in our lives are not things we can control. With that being said I guess we are pretty much responsible for making our own happiness. Until we walk in someone elses shoes, we really don't know how that person is really feeling. Yes, I would like for some things to be very different, but on the whole, yes, I am pretty happy most of the time.

Sue

Very, very happy.
More news coming later.

monica, what a tease you are. :)

Like most other people, if I could start over I would do some things differently and hope for a different outcome, but I love my family and friends and I like my own company so I can pretty much keep myself happy or at least contented.

Linda

Yes, there are some things I would change. But, since that is an impossibility I made up my mind and move on. That is what life is about, I guess, learning, experiencing, and then teaching others about what worked and didn't work in your life so they will not make the same mistakes. That said, I was sometimes too hard headed to listen to wisdom. I guess if I could change anything it would be my thick headness, or hard headness some older folk call it.

I am very happy in spite of things I would change. Life is good and with a serious illness smacking you in the face, you learn to really appreciate life....every bit of it but I've always been that kind of person.

I am happy and content. I had a very tough childhood, and I was affected by that, but somehow I managed to make a very nice life for myself. I would change some decisions I made when I was a young adult, if I could do things over, but I did the best I could at the time. But now I have a nice husband, family, home and career, and my life is very good. I'm thankful everyday for how things ended up for me.

Monica, you sure have my curiosity piqued!

Do you think Monica and Tom are going to get married? Tell us Monica.
I am happy and content with my life. I am so happy to be retired. There are things I would have changed in my life. I would have had more than one child. Since I can't change things, I am content with where I am.

I try to be positive, but find it's a real effort these days.

I don't think I've ever felt truly happy..not even sure what happy means to most folks.

I've done a lot of thinking about this lately and a friend of mine and I talk about it a lot. Considering how many people in the world are hungry, cold, at war, sick, etc. - I don't have a darn thing to complain about!!

I have a warm comfortable house, a good husband who loves me, great, healthy kids and grandkids, wonderful pets, my mom and my brother, great friends - Hey, life is good!

I always wanted to be a teacher and I did that for 28 years. Now I'm retired and it's time for me to play awhile. What happens next? Nobody knows. I say to be thankful for what you've got and try to see all the ways that you've been blessed. That being said - is everything perfect in my life? Well, shoot no! LOL

I think you need to go through all that little stuff in the early years. That way you can appreciate how good you have it now. I have to honestly say that I'm a content person these years. It took alot of good little stuff and bad little stuff to get here, but we have a lovely home, a beautiful daughter and her adorable family, DH is my best friend in all the world, I can afford to stay home and garden, etc. What more can I say?

Life's little challenges make you what you are.

Read Linda (Mscsippy) and put my name on it.
Leslie

Of course there are some things I would change, if I could go back, but I can't, so I don't spend even one minute dwelling on it. Over all, I have always been a happy person. I have a good life and I am very, very happy now.

Yes, fairly happy. I do regret giving up the Air Force and living in Germany to follow the ex and get married. Can't go back and change it, though.

I like my job at times, sometimes not so much. If I could do what I really want to do, own a market garden and make a decent living at it, I would probably volunteer at the hospital I work at now, during the winter months. I'd get to work with veterans without the stress.

Sometimes I wish I would meet a nice guy, but the longer time goes on, the less I think that's really going to happen. I also see all the conflict and crap that women around me go through and wonder if I would really want that to happen.

I'm naturally a happy, optimistic person, but I've been crying uncle for the last 4 years of one personal tragedy after another. The stress is impossible, and optimism doesn't help in the face of what I'm facing. Am I happy? Often. Worried to death? Yes. Sometimes I even worry that my optimism is somehow causing me to avoid practicality, yet I know there is nothing I can do to change the situations!

I was very very happy up until 3 years ago. Everyones health around me is deteriorating as well as my own.

Lately, I'm having trouble snapping out of it.

It seems everytime I am happy my oldest son finds some way to disrupt it.
Currently he has left his wife and 4(one is still an infant) children; and we are helping them so they don't end up on the street.
I love my Grandchildren and Daughter in law, but would be much happier without the stress my son brings into everyone's life.

Define happy.

I have few regrets, but if I could go back in time I would do a few things differently.

Am I happy in general? I am happy with certain aspects of my life, unhappy in others. It tends to change throughout the years. Not complaining though... my life has been very blessed and for that I am thankful.

When I look back, I think I did very well. I went and got my Nursing degree right out of high school and it has been a wonderful, consistant career. I did not marry until I was 24, but choose the perfect DH. We will be married 25 years so I guess that worked out well. LOL

I would have liked to have a couple more kids but Doctors told me I should'nt so we didn't.

Our kids never gave us much trouble, so I guess we did alright as parents too. We all get along very well. We decided before we married, I would stay home with them and quit work. When the time came for me to go back to work, I found a job very quick since I was a nurse.

Thanks for letting me "brag" a little. This made me more thankful for all the things I have.

Judy

If I knew THEN what I know NOW, I would make some changes. I don't know if it would make me any happier or if things just would be different.
Clare

I wouldn't change a thing...
except may not got involved in our son's business...It would be nice to still have the money we planned on having for our retirement.

But life is still good anyway....We love and we laugh a lot...sure there is a little bickering shuffled in there once in awhile...But we usually end up laughing about how stupid it was after it's over.

I'm much happier than I deserve to be. Of course, some of that may be thanks to Zoloft! :)

(((((((Granlan)))))))

Funny you should ask. I got some new makeup yesterday and tried it on for size today. While I was looking in the mirror, I suddenly started smiling, and though, how happy I was. That was a good feeling. I try to be happy but life does get in the way - for all of us. I take the good with the bad because both have lessons. When I come out on top, it's just a little easier to smile. I'm happiest when I wake up and realize that I'm just a little wiser than I was the day before.

I've wondered sometimes whether I'd have done things differently.

I regret not having done a better job of letting my ex- know how much she meant to me, how much I loved her.

I regret also that I was not able to continue in parish ministry through the latter part of my career: upwards of 40 years ago, when it came to family breakup ... " ... clergy - didn't - do - that!".

Rather ironic, isn't it ... clergy (Christians in general, for that matter) talk a lot about that four-letter-word called "love" ... but sometimes demonstrate too little of it? At home?

Too soon old: too late smart, maybe?

My judgement has been that I doubt that I'd have changed much, given my situation at the time.

I remember hearing some years ago that there's a good case to be made for saying that pursuing happiness directly is a fruitless enterprise ...

... that it comes as a by-product, when we take on some pursuits or projects in life that are important to us, and that when we do a fairly creditable job of carrying them forward toward achievement, that happiness arrives along with the satisfaction that we have in that other achievement - as a bonus, so to speak.

But that pursuing happiness for its own sake often doesn't work out very well.

Sort of like a dog chasing its tail, perhaps - lots of exercise ... but one doesn't achieve much that turns out to be satisfying and fulfilling.

That idea seems to have some merit, I think.

Same with pursuing money/wealth, possibly? Money makes a fine servant ... but a horrible master! Could one consider the overarching pursuit of it ... comparable to a long-term drunk?

How many, on their death-bed, lament not having spent more time at the office? Chasing money? How many aged Dads hear the kid sing the song that s/he heard from them when they were young ... like to get together ... one day soon ... busy now. Can't remember the exact words of that song at the moment.

I feel that, despite some disappointments, including those mentioned above, I've been reasonably happy with my life.

One reason being, I think, that I've tried to deal with the situations in which I was, as the years went by ... rather than fussing over things that didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped. Grandma used to say, "Don't cross bridges until you get there!" ... and I never heard her advise not to go back and re-cross them, over and over, instead of carrying on with our errand: but she would have, I'm sure.

When farmer Dad, who was having trouble breathing in humid, (maybe polluted, over 60 years ago?) Ontario weather and was considering moving to the drier Prairies early in 1945, near the end of World War II, when there was a shortage of equipment, was wondering whether to sell and go ... one morning stayed awake till about 4, considering ... then decided that he was going.

With that ... he rolled over and went to sleep ... and never went back to mull it over again. He moved in '46 ... died in '86 - 40 years of good health, to age 85 (when he drove alone 2,000 miles to visit friends ... in 3 days).

Though some of my recent statements and posts seem to indicate otherwise, I tend to be optimistic about life and hopeful, I think. I trust that, all in all, this world is a good place and that we should be thankful for it ... and treat it with respect.

People who tend to think that they can make Mother Nature conform to their wishes ... usually find that, after a while ... she rises up ... and kicks them in the ass.

ole joyful

ole joyful ... trying to live life over, I guess!
(Speaking out of both sides of my mouth, maybe?).

ole joyful ... what's this doing here, anyway? Will someone please tell that guy to shut up ... and just send the darn message!!

hard question today...i lost an uncle over the weekend...

but for the most part, we're content, and happy at times especially with the grands...

Yes, I am very happy. Life has been "life". With deaths, births, marriage, divorce, and being single and happier than ever before. I am happy with all the choices I've made throughout my life.

The only regret I have is not insisting on going to college eariler...my mother said she needed me to start working and I didn't realize I could do both. I went back at 40 but only got my AA and didn't go on because of family & career responsibilities. And I wish I had taken better care of my self, meaning I am overweight but so far healthy for my age. I am doing something about it now but as you know it's more difficult when you're 63 and not 21.

I'm going to retire July 1st of this year and I'm so excited and happy to move on to the next phase of my life -those retirement years where you can finally do all the things you've wanted to do.

I am so blessed and happy with my life and that I am able to retire at this point. I have my health, a beautiful grandson and a daughter who is happily married to a wonderful man. I have lots of interests and have creative skills to make things that will that I can give to others that will be here after I am gone. I want to make a positive difference in this world!

I thank the good Lord many times a day. We never know what's around the corner or when our time will come...so I will take each day as the gift it is and try to make the most of it.

Susan

If I had it to do over again.... I would do everything different! I would have payed attention in school, been a lot smarter about choosing men in my life, had a child, been in a different profession and spent more time with my family.
Someone said something very wise to me last week and it really hit home. "Look at life as if you were driving a car. Look ahead through the windsheild and behind through the rear view mirror". If you focus too much on the rear view mirror you won't be able to see what's ahead. I'm trying more and more to look ahead and not live with regrets. I'm 55 and have many more years to make positive choices.
Am I happy??? Happiness comes from your thoughts. I choose to have happy thoughts and be thankful for what I have not what I don't have. No one has a perfect life. We are all in this together. Being nice to people and trying to help others takes the focus off yourself.
Donna

ooops....I'm 54 LOL

I can't think of a single major thing I would change, because any change would have changed the future and I wouldn't be right here, right now, if I had done things differently.

That said, I do wish I had kept my mouth shut a few times and not said what I was thinking. :)

I agree with all of what YaYa said, tons to be happy about, little to gripe about.

I am content, happy, and very thankful for all of my life's blessings: A God to guide and take care of me, a wonderful husband and daughter, 5 grandkids and 4 greatgrandkids, many dear friends, basic good health for our age, animals to love, a roof over my head, food to eat, bills get paid, time to craft and just enjoy life.

I think happiness is a temporary state and I am happy with contentment and peace.

Quite a few years ago I decided not to look back and dwell on stuff I can't change.

Thus, I am happy with where I am. Well, cept that last move... I could have done without that one. :)

Moni