If You're Happy and You Know It...(Part 1)

Most of us have grown with the familiar tune, "If You're Happy and You Know It, Clap Your Hands." I have memories of doing this song at Vacation Bible Schools and daycare events when I was little. I always looked forward to the clapping my hands in response to the lyrics. It was easy to say I was happy! There I was, surrounded by my friends, in a place I felt comfortable. I had a family that loved me and was well fed. I had toys and clothes. I was sure that God loved me, no matter what. As we grow older though, what happened to that innocent joy and happiness that was so easy to acknowledge? Did it disappear? Or do the lives we live as we are older block the happiness that we once had easy access to?

So right now, take a moment to imagine the perfect day - a day where everything goes how you want it to. Maybe you wake up and you're not tired. Maybe you don't have to go to school. Maybe it's a day where you have no worries or stresses. Maybe you get to go travel the world and see astonishing sights, or maybe you get to go on a fall hike with your family and friends. Goodness, maybe you even get an unlimited amount of ice cream. Whatever your perfect day is, put yourself in that position and imagine how you feel. Are you content? Are you happy? What else do you feel?

Okay, now wake up. Let's get real: this day that you are imagining is just a dream. It isn't reality. Reality is what you are living right now, and reality can be hard. For some of you, you might be going through a broken relationship, maybe with your friends, a family member or a boyfriend or girlfriend. Others of you may be facing stress, confusion and the helpless feeling of just being lost. Issues in our personal life, in our families, at school and just in our community can drag us down. In the midst of our chaotic lives, we are looking and searching for one thing: to be happy.

We try to make ourselves happy in numerous ways. We wear the latest fashions. We are friends - or sometimes "friends" - with certain people who are "cool" or "popular". We listen to music. We go to certain parties and sometimes try certain things that people say will make us forget about life and help us"let loose". We look for love from a boyfriend or girlfriend. We eat food. We buy the latest technology. We watch movies and TV shows. We fill our lives with so much stuff in an attempt to make ourselves happy, but in the end, does it work?

Many of you reading probably have been trying to satisfy your hunger for happiness in many of the ways I listed above. These things that we are trying, they are what the world tells us will make us happy. Let's evaluate this for a moment. By filling your life with this stuff, are you truly happy? Sure, for the moment while we are doing these things we feel content and filled, but once they pass? Once they pass, we feel empty, like we want more. These things don't fill us and leave us complete. Once they are over, we face reality again. We feel like we have to refill the empty hole in our souls with more stuff that supposedly will make us complete. These things we fill ourselves with don't give us true happiness; they give us pleasure.

I want to take a moment to discuss the difference between "pleasure" and "happiness". By looking only at dictionary definitions of these words, we can begin to see the differences between these words. The Merriam Webster definition of pleasure is "a state of gratification" and "frivolous amusement"; the definition of happiness is "a state of well being and contentment" and "a satisfying experience". Now those definitions might be confusing, so let me explain them more in depth. Pleasure is a feeling that satisfies us - but only for a short amount of time. Once the source of pleasure leaves us, we feel empty, despair and a longing for more. In other words this satisfaction is only temporary. Happiness, on the other hand, fills us. Happiness is a feeling that completely satisfies our hunger for more and we feel content, even after the source of happiness leaves us. So which do you want: pleasure or happiness?

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This post is the first part of a bi-part devotional. The next segment will be up within the next week or so, so stay tuned for how you can begin to find the happiness that you long for.

Blessings,

Emily Silverwing

Washington D.C. - Days 4 and 5

I'm so happy to get the next two days up for y'all to see! So, one my fourth day on my D.C. trip, I was able to go into the actual city of Washington D.C.! It was amazing, especially because I rode on an underground Metro subway for the first time! These may seem small to everyone, but I was so excited to go on the Metro! I had heard of people riding on these, but never experienced it myself, and let me tell you, it was quite the experience! When I first boarded, it was early enough in the transfer for me to be able to sit in a seat. Unfortunately though, pretty much every time I sat on the Metro, it was next to a stranger. Now this isn't a bad thing, but the way people interact in a big city is WAY different from the small town I live in. Usually, what I am used to is saying hello to people walking on the streets or at least smiling in this direction. The people on the Subway hardly acknowledged each other, even the people they were sitting right next to! Most people were reading books, using their phones or listening to music, and on some rides, the car was nearly silent!

Now that I've ranted about that, let's get on to the more interesting stuff! So, on day four, I was able to see the outside of the Library of Congress, tour the Supreme Court building and the Capitol building! By a bout of bad luck, it just so happens that my camera died halfway through our walk through the Supreme Court building so I have no pictures to show y'all of the rotunda and stuff, but I HIGHLY recommend Google searching pictures of it. Anyways, on the fourth day we walked passed the Library of Congress but did not go in because not everyone that came to D.C. with me was above the approved age. (You have to be 16 or older to go into the Library of Congress.) After that, we were able to walk to the Supreme Court building - the third branch of our government. We didn't do too much here, but we walked through a hallway that had the history of the Supreme Court on it, saw the spiral staircase and were able to peek in at the actual court room. We mostly just stopped here to fill in time because we had to go over to the Capitol building.

Now, the visit to the Capitol building was very special because not only were we able to see the building and learn about the history of it, but we were able to actually personally meet a house representative from Michigan! We were able to go to his office and sit to talk with him for about five minutes! Despite what it sometimes appears, representatives are just normal people and can be very friendly. After talking to the representative, we got a personal tour from one of his interns of the place. We wore special pins to wear and were able to see different areas and skip past certain lines. There's so many parts of the Capitol building that I just loved! One thing that stood out to me was the number of statues of various people. Our tour guide said that each state was able to choose two people that they deem important from that state's history and send a statue to the Capitol. The statues are spread out throughout the building, but there is one room where a good number of statues reside. The room is technically called the "National Statuary Hall" but is often nicknamed "the whispering gallery". In this large room, there are certain places that you can stand where you can hear someone whisper from yards away - even in a noisy hall! Our tour guide demonstrated it to us, and it's crazy how clear the whisper was despite all the commotion in the hall! In this hall, there are also little marks were certain presidents had desks. Another favorite part of the Capitol was the rotunda, and I'm so disappointed that I couldn't get pictures! The painting on the walls and ceiling of this room is so intricate and just awe-inspiring. My final favorite part was being able to see the House of Representative chamber! The line to get into this room took HOURS to get through, and by the time we got to the chamber, the house was in recess. Still, it was amazing to see the room and sit in the balcony!

On the fifth day in D.C. I went to Fredicksburg, Virginia. In Fredricksburg, we went to the Lacey House which was a monumental part of the civil war. It used to be a family's home, but was taken over and converted into a hospital. We also were able to see a Union cemetery before finishing up the day with ice cream!

Day 4:

Library of Congress

Library of Congress

Fountain in front of the Library of Congress

Outside of the Capitol Building - It was under construction.

Outside of the Supreme Court Building

Part of the design on the Supreme Court Building

Spiral Staircase

Ceiling of the Supreme Court building

Day 5: 

Gardens leading up to the Lacey House

More gardens and outer buildings of the Lacey House

Lacey House from the back

Cannon at the Lacey House

More gardens

Pretty flower at the Lacey House

The Lacey House

Flowers on a tree at the Lacey house. I don't know what they are, but I love them!

Close up of the flower

Magnolia tree at the Lacey House

Trail leading to the cemetery

They are hard to see, but these are the grave stones in the cemetery.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures! There's a few more days to put up!

~Emily Silverwing