When You Have All You Dreamed, But It Still Isn’t Enough

“How many people have something, or a few somethings, they’ve dreamed of?

The house.

The wife.

The husband.

The singlehood.

The kids.

The lack of kids.

The job.

The coworkers.

The bank account.

The car.

The pet.

The passion project.

The friends.

The balanced schedule.

The weight.

The zen.

How many people have something, or a few somethings, they’ve dreamed of?

But.

It.

Is.

Still.

Not.

Enough.

Because they need more.

And better.

And more, that’s better.

And nothing is better than more than what they’ve got.

Except for what she’s got.

Or what he’s got.

How many people have attained a portion, if not more, of their dream life, and now that ‘gotcha’ doesn’t seem like enough or all they’ve cracked it up to be and they’ve started to dream of needing more, leading them to wanting more?

How many people are ill content no. matter. what. life is like for them?

It’s a slippery slope, people, trying to procure happiness, and it’s a mountain we all ski.

And do you know where it leads?

Nowhere good.

Nowhere healthy.

Nowhere helpful.

To an embankment of malaise and gloom and jealousy.

To unhappiness.

So what do we do?

We learn to live in gratitude for ALL that IS, and not just for all that is what we wanted.

We take on the hills, the slippery segments, and the scary bits and we remind ourselves to look the hell around and to appreciate the natural and authentic beauty of all that just plain is.

Even when that is different than what we thought it would be or less than ideal.

We know happiness isn’t a destination.

We’ve been told.

We’ve also been told it’s all about the journey, and yeah, I see that.

But what if we don’t look at happiness as a destination or a journey but as a person that resides in all of us begging to be let free — itching for us to experience all that we are…

1) by letting go of who we think we are meant to be and how we think our life should go and look

2) and loving who we really are and what our life is and isn’t at any given moment.

Life is short.

So should be our list of complaints and our wants.”

This story was submitted to Love What Matters by Nicole Merritt of Jthreenme. You can follow her on Facebook. Get her new book, Musings for Mom, here. Submit your own story here.

Read more from Nicole here:

‘I expected him to tell me, ‘Yeah, I’ve noticed. You’ve got to do something about that anxiety.’ He didn’t though.’: Mom grateful for husband’s love when sharing insecurities

‘Do I send my child to their brick and mortar campus and worry about their physical health EVERY SINGLE DAY?’: Mom shares frustrations for fall school re-openings

‘You’ll never remember these nights. When I lie in bed, listening to you breathe, and question if someone, anyone, could do this better.’: Mom says ‘you’ll never remember these nights, but I will’

‘I send them to school with stains. We eat dinner in front of the TV. We make noise, a lot of it, and we like our pasta best slurped.’: Mom urges ‘dance to the beat of your own family’s drum’

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