Put on a happy face

There is nothing like a bit of winter sunshine to really sort out the symptoms of seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Yes as I have mentioned before I get sad with SAD. But when I drive down West Coast Highway on a glorious day like today I become the shiniest, happiest person in the whole city.

I even started singing to the kids in the car:

Grey skies are gonna clear up,

Put on a happy face.

Brush off the clouds and cheer up,

Put on a happy face.

And spread sunshine all over the place,

Just put on a happy face.

Ok, some of you might think that I may have inhaled one too many cleaning products this morning, but it's true. The weather can totally make or break my day. I was so happy to be out and about this morning that I stayed out twice as long!

I wasn't even going to go anywhere but HM did the last minute sneaky-exit-without-taking-the-kids after telling the kids they were going to the beach on the obligatory surf check. This of course was actually a clever ploy to get me out of the house (once the kids think they are going to the beach, you either have to take them or be prepared for no end of harrassment). They simply will not be placated any other way. Not even with ice cream.

So there I was driving down to the beach on the most magnificent of July mornings. SINGING.

The kids did not utter a sound during my warbling. They did not even flinch.

So we arrived at the beach and the glorious day just continued on. We watched The Surfer shredding it, we sat and made sand castles, some of us walked and collected shells and stuff, we had a muffin at the café and I had the most divine macchiato. For the record, I'm slowly introducing the odd dash of caffeine (and the odd slurp of vino) back into the diet. In my hiatus I learned this:

But just getting back to my choice of song for a minute ... I recently decided to stop putting on a happy face, as in stop pretending to be happy when obviously not feeling happy. Stop pretending to the girlfriends and extended family members, while letting it show at home. I realised that this was not that healthy (or genuine) and was a continuing part of the charade that I had so often played.

It took me a while to realise that it didn't matter where I was or what stage of my life I was in, there was something in my brain that just wasn't seeing the good stuff in life. It was only seeing the bad stuff. When my life experienced any major change (one of many), instead of being happy about the future, I was deeply upset about the loss of the past.

I have nothing to be sad about. Yes I've lost some very good friends far too young, but I also have a lot of very, very good friends still around. I have my health, I have my kids, I have my family and I have a good man.

And I have wine. But for all the right reasons now. Cheers!