Oh I made another embroidery. This one was for my dad’s 75th birthday because he loves to fish.
@sassy1121 yeah…his birthday was actually in april when this was just a fish, a splash, and a couple of rocks with no scenery at all. *Luckily* me, my spouse, and our kids all got covid and couldn’t visit for Easter and his birthday, so I had lots of extra time.
I remember when I was 21 and finishing my undergrad and living at home and being, like, ULTRA depressed, without knowing to call it that, and believing that if I could just Be Somewhere Else I’d be happy.
I did go somewhere else. I can’t remember if it made me happy. I maybe didn’t go far enough, or stay gone long enough. I’m willing to believe that the problem is not one I can leave in a physical location. I know that. Intellectually.
But now I’m 44 and it’s not so much that I think my happiness is waiting for me somewhere else, just that it’s hard to imagine that I could ever have it here.
Well, yeah, the unhelpful kind of folks who say things like “bloom where you’re planted ” or “wherever you go, you take yourself with you” … gag me.
If the scenery around you is boring, is draining, is non-nourishing to you, requires a set of skills or a sort of toughness to cope with that you do not have – you can be happier somewhere else. And by scenery, I don’t just mean rocks and plants, I mean your neighbors, the priorities of your city council, the ambience of the nearest saloon, the smell from the factory on the outskirts of town. If you move, you sure can’t guarantee that you will like your new neighbors but you sure can choose a neighborhood that is (statistically) more likely to be compatible, colorful, noisy, quiet, whatever. And you sure as hell can swap oil refinery smell for tomato cannery smell.
Even if that new somewhere comes with its own set of problems: if nothing else comes of moving, at least you can shake off one specific misery: the misery of feeling stuck.
Maybe not Happy with a capital H, but happier at least.
