I'm Happy Now: You Can Be, Too!

By John Arthur

John Arthur was born in Illinois and moved to Indiana when he was two years old. His parents chose a small town east of Indianapolis that was the birthplace of James Whitcomb Riley.

Perhaps growing up in this historical town had an influence on John that inspired him to express his feelings in poetry. James Whitcomb Rileys poems were often tales of ordinary events like the porch swing in Waitin Fer the Cat to Die, the young woman that helped around the house in Little Orphant Annie and swimming in the creek in The Old Swimmin Hole. Like J. W. Riley, John has written poems that capture the significant events in his life from the day he left the Mid-West for California to the present. He has included a dialog where he describes the events in his life that lead up to the poetry. He also includes a broader vision of what he has learned about himself and others along the way in his pursuit of happiness. He is deeply compelled to share what he has learned in order to encourage his readers to begin their pursuit of happiness earlier in their life, so they have more of their life to enjoy. Life is too short to let the down times keep you down.

Read his book and begin your path to happiness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 6, 2011
• ISBN: 9781469130514

Book preview

I’M HAPPY NOW

YOU CAN BE, TOO!

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John Arthur

Copyright © 2011 by John Arthur.

Library of Congress Control Number:       2011961825

ISBN:         Hardcover                               978-1-4691-3050-7

                   Softcover                                 978-1-4691-3049-1

                   Ebook                                      978-1-4691-3051-4

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

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CONTENTS

Preface

Acknowledgements

Chapter One Getting To California

Chapter Two Back Home In Indiana

Chapter Three My Father

Chapter Four Stefani

Chapter Five Our Daughters

Chapter Six Growing Up In Indiana

Chapter Seven Born Again

Chapter Eight Even New Beginnings End

Chapter Nine Quothe The Poet, Forevermore

Preface

I AM happy now. It has been a long road of pursuing happiness and I would like to share with you how I arrived at a sustainable level of happiness. I started pursing happiness as a child. I stopped in my tracks one day when I overheard my mother tell someone on the phone, This is a Mad House! I stopped and said, No, Mommy, this is a Happy House! My mother told this story over and over again throughout her life along with her own contribution that we should count our blessings and be thankful for what we have. We are taught to pursue happiness in our history books as you will recall with an excerpt from the Declaration of Independence: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

I have sought happiness throughout my life and I believe that happiness is important for all mankind to pursue in order to live in harmony. The founders of our nation, The United States of America, knew that happiness was important and incorporated happiness as one of our unalienable rights in the Declaration of Independence. So, what is happiness? Wikipedia defines happiness as a mental state of well-being characterized by positive emotions, ranging from contentment to intense joy.

I have bounced in and out of happiness and depression my whole life. Although I knew that I wanted to pursue happiness, as I believe most people do, achieving a constant state of happiness seems to be nearly impossible. I was raised in Indiana with Mid-West values that included a strong work ethic, lots of meat and potatoes and the thought of seeking therapy or self help books was for sissies or people with serious problems. It wasn’t until I moved to California that the door was opened to getting professional advice for your mental health as well as your physical health. I had always been proud of working things out for myself. I put myself through school, got married and raised children with little outside help. The light bulb finally went on when I sought grief counseling after my mother’s death and I realized that I needed to work on my own attitude, fears and beliefs in order for me to really pursue happiness.

My current therapist has been very helpful in discussing what it takes to find happiness. His name is Wilbert Baumker and he always says, Everyone wants to feel good. That is what motivates us to get up in the morning. We want to experience feeling good. I think it is important to consider another one of his quotes in conjunction with feeling good and that is, Every action you take should be with the idea of adding value to the universe. Combining the two will help prevent things like eating ice cream until you’re blue in the face to feel happy. Perhaps that would add value to the ice cream company, but it doesn’t really add value to the universe.

One of my motivations in publishing my book is an attempt to add value to the universe. My humble attempt at describing my pursuit of happiness and what I have learned about happiness are included in my book. I hope the readers of my book will find something they can use to aid in their pursuit of happiness.

I’m Happy Now is a collection of poems surrounding the events in my life. I was going to call the book California Hoosier, My Life in Poetry, but realized that no one would buy a book that requires an explanation of the title. I grew up in Indiana (Indiana natives are known as Hoosiers) and I made a significant move to California when I was thirty years old, thus California Hoosier. During the editing process and contemplating the last poem in the book, On Being Happy, I thought that I’m Happy Now would make a better first glance statement at what I am trying to accomplish with my book. I have always respected the need to feel happy, because I believe that happiness is a part of a healthy lifestyle. I am not happy 100% of the time, but I work on being happy and would like to support and promote what it takes to be happy, so that others can experience a greater degree of happiness.

I would like all of the readers of this book to feel the love, the sadness in a good way and the overall happiness of being alive and living through the ups and downs of life. We are all unique, yet in a wonderful way a part of everyone else on the planet. I love the experience of life through family, friends, sports, music, great food, entertainment, travel and work. Yes, I said work, because you should enjoy what you do. Everyone should be doing what they enjoy and/or something that they do well naturally and take joy in their accomplishments. My life has been much like the song, That’s Life, with its ups and downs probably much like everyone’s life who reads this book. Ups and downs are part of life and life is too short to let the down time take advantage of you.

Mowing lawns at 11 years old for $1.50 a yard helped me develop a strong work ethic. Work has been a constant part of my life and I have faced the same issues that I am sure many of you have when you need to balance work and family life. It is a struggle sometimes, especially when there are as many points of view as there are members of your family. I don’t have all the answers for resolving family conflict, but I continue to seek guidance, answers and solutions. I have spent my life learning, not just the education I needed for my career, but how to be successful in all parts of life. Some of the things I have learned along the way, I wished that I had read the book or taken the class earlier in life.

The bottom line is that happiness is a state of mind. You can be happy even in a dreary environment, if you have a good plan for getting out of your current situation. Not every plan will lead to a future of happiness. There are good plans and bad plans. Picking the right plan and staying on a target to maintain happiness is much like a good business plan with an emphasis on sustainable growth and profitability. Using business as an example, bankruptcy may get you out of a bad situation, but you should come up with a better business plan to prepare for