2020 Vision

On New Year’s Eve 2019, I remember wondering what the new year was going to be like. I tried to envision 2020. Would it be a good year or a bad year? Would we become grandparents again, would my new company blossom, would my wife able to focus on her newfound passion for painting, would I finally be able to get my golf index into single digits? So many important (and some not so important) questions ran through my mind. But now that it’s nearly halfway over, it’s obvious that my view was blurred and that I had nowhere near 2020 vision.

I think when I was asking myself those questions, what I was really asking was one simple question. Will I be happy? It seems like happiness is at the core of every question that ever comes up in my life, because as humans happiness is what we all seek.

So here we are in the middle of 2020 and we’re in the middle of a worldwide pandemic. As of today, more than 7 million people have contracted the Coronavirus and nearly half a million people have died. Over 2 million people in the United States alone have contracted the virus and the numbers are still increasing at a dramatic rate. So this morning, I asked myself a new question, how can we possibly be happy under these conditions?

I thought about it for a long time and I even did some research on happiness. I found out that a scientific study was done and they determined that happiness typically peaks in humans at age 20. From that point it decreases until we reach the age of 70. From that point on our happiness usually increases. Or at least that is what the study says.

I strongly disagree! Yes, when I was in my 20’s and 30’s I was unhappy a lot of the time. I was trying to make my way in the world and let’s face it, this world is one tough place to live. I was scared and lonely some of the time, and totally lost most of the time. But then something happened when I was 33. I began to see that I was missing a connection with God, so I asked Him for help. It wasn’t immediate, but over the next few years, my relationship with my heavenly Father grew stronger and stronger and my level of happiness grew larger and larger. So I don’t think happiness has anything to do with age. It has to do with being able to see… to see what’s really important…and in that area my vision is totally 2020!

A truly happy person is one who can 

enjoy the scenery while on a detour.

~ Anonymous