Happiness and Love

Today I'm thinking about happiness and love. A lot. And I'm wondering if my happiness factor would go up substantially if I were better at this:

It's not that I've amassed a lot of enemies during my 50-plus years, but I'm wondering about the people in life with whom I find myself less than patient, less than accepting, less than understanding. The ones that don't seem to get it right, at least in my eyes. The ones that bug me or don't seem to have much concern for others.

Let's use a recent experience I had with a certain physician whom I found a little deficient in his bedside manner. He didn't seem very caring at all and I wondered whether or not he was even listening to me. My impression was that he was just going through the motions. And when I questioned him about something, his answer had to do with who signs his paycheck rather than how he could best help me. Ugh. It occurred to me that he could easily fall into that enemy category. Was I supposed to love this guy who couldn't care less about me? And when he didn't accurately document my last visit to his office, he fell even farther into that pit because not only did I not trust him anymore, but now I'd been wronged by him. Love him? Really??

So the way I see it I've got two choices. Express gratitude for what he was able to do for me and move on, or let his inability to meet my needs victimize me further and allow me to plunge deeper into that deep, dark place where light doesn't shine and happiness can't possibly prevail. Oh, sure, I'll dispute his report, just to set the record straight, and that'll be another hoop to jump through on the road to recovery {which evidently isn't named Easy Street!}. 

But in the end, I think that subscribing to 

Love Your Enemies 

will be a healthier, happier choice for my overall well-being.

It'll make my heart happy. 

And there'll be more capacity for love.

On a scale of 1-100, where is your happiness factor today?