With school starting soon, I feel like it’s a good time to re-evaluate what I’m doing on the blog and what changes I should make. This is timely given the author chat between me, Leenie Brown, and Zoe Burton last week on the topic of consistency. I’ve been fairly regular on a few themes for the blog this summer but honestly…I am a bit bored. I don’t ALWAYS want to post about music on Mondays. I don’t ALWAYS want to make Thursdays be a short story or a story excerpt etc. Also, there are certain things that take far more time to create content for. Mr. Darcy and the Bewitched Sisters and Tempting Scandal should be posted in more than 500 word excerpts. Does that mean I will have more than 500 words ready each week? No. Instead, I’ll be rotating a few options. I’m still deciding on the schedule but it will be consistent. One Friday a month will be Mr. Darcy and the Bewitched Sisters. I hope to have a new chapter per post. If not, a new scene–which previously would take two to four weeks to post–will be available. On the other Fridays, there will be other options. You get the drift.
So, this Monday is Monday Motivation. Music Monday is not gone forever, just getting spaced out a bit. Here’s some motivation for the week for you. 
“You will be exactly as happy as you decide to be.” I truly believe this is the key to happiness and success in life. I didn’t always understand what it meant. Happiness is one of the few things in life you have direct control over. Can things try to influence it? Can you momentarily feel any other number of emotions? Definitely! But you can choose to be happy.
I am not criticizing people struggling with depression or grief. I’m using happiness as the antithesis of sad or discontent. If your life isn’t what you want it to be, what can you do to change it? What will make you happy? Plot out what you need to do to make it happen–then do it! And along the way, be happy.
On the other hand, if you do have depression or are struggling with grief, please know you are not alone. There are infinite resources on the internet that can give you a community. Seek help from trained therapists and professionals. It is not a weakness to admit you need assistance. It makes you brave as so many stay silent.
You deserve the best life. You HAVE the best life. It’s yours and the only one you’ve got so be happy whether the sun is shining or there’s a storm that has ruined all your plans.
Rose Fairbanks 
Well said but also glad you recognize that MH issues and/or life events can and should affect some…sadly. I still tear up when I hear the ad on radio about opioids causing a young son to commit suicide. How can his mother or other loved ones ever get over that? Life goes on but I have to think of the shadow on the loved ones’ lives.
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I think, at some point, grief does become a choice that people can choose to let linger and affect every moment or they can place it with less emphasis in their lives and move on in some way. There’s no set time for what is best–it’s different for everyone. Nor do I imagine it to be a set, done thing. I think there are probably infinite moments of grief. If I lost a child, I could see myself grieving the immediate things. Then perhaps years later, grieving what would have been. Still, later the loss of grandchildren that might have been etc. But I think there’s also a growing feeling of bittersweetness which, over time, can become more sweet than bitter. I’ve never lost a child but I have faced other losses. I have been diagnosed with grieving for loved ones who are still alive but in every way dead to me. I couldn’t get through it on my own. I needed help. Now, I do still feel the grief but I also choose to find happiness in every day. I’m trying to become more aware of when I am grieving, when I am depressed, and when I am just sad because of a momentary issue and obviously the last one is easiest to turn around. There’s no quick fix for grief or depression. They are processes which you must go through and people have every right to feel sad, bitter, discontent, and many other things then.
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Thanks for sharing!
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