Why Wouldn’t We Be Happy

by guest poster, Tom Tuohy

My friend Quincy has an infectious enthusiasm. I love the way he just puts his head back and yells, “Yeah!” He doesn’t need a reason to do it, he just does it. He is happy. He loves life. He loves people.

The Illinois Center for Rehabilitation and Education, (ICRE), is a state facility for young people with physical and or developmental challenges. Quincy, who was born with cerebral palsy, lives there.

On a recent visit, Kristen, one of our volunteers, asked Quincy why he was always so happy. Quincy thought for a minute and said, “Why wouldn’t I be happy?”

We all have the choice to be unconditionally happy. Often we forget how. More importantly we lose sight of the way of being that brings us our greatest joy – being generous.

Everyone has something to give. Life gets in the way sometimes. We are fooled into thinking we don’t have the time, we don’t have the money, we have too many responsibilities……. These things may be true but we always have a choice. It begins with saying ‘Hi’ to the guy who takes our money at the toll booth, the lady standing next to us in line, or the kid who looking at us, hoping we are the hero they dream about.

I wish everyone knew Quincy. They would know that he gets it. “Yeah,” Quincy, if we all realized how you looked at life, we could do it, too.

Every conscious act of engagement and generosity gives us great joy in return. When we DON’T make that choice we are really cheating ourselves. If we all remembered to know this, what we would choose? Why wouldn’t we choose to be happy?

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Adapted from an article by Tom Tuohy, Founder and President of Dreams for Kids. For more information on DFK, click here www.dreamsforkids.org

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