"It's the most wonderful time of the year."

"It's the most joyous time of the year," fills the air.

Everywhere I go, I hear happy songs about being married... sorry... merry and bright noses being written down in history.

My gutteral, visceral, and immediate reaction is simply disgust.

I'm not disgusted by the thought of people who really are happy at this moment in time. I admire the people who have that nuclear family; the people who have a fireplace, bearskin rug, hot mugs of hot chocolate topped with real whipped cream and marshmallows. I'm amazed by the people who have hearts big enough to open their doors on this private and personal day to children of broken families, single moms, and foreign kids in their neighborhood sent away by their parents to learn that culture and language. This, to me, is beautiful.

I'm disgusted by my own mental image that the vast majority of the world is nothing like the above family. 

I'm disgusted by my own imagination of my dear personal friends who are laying in bed alone without family, friends, boyfriend or girlfriend.

Ultimately, I'm disgusted by how glib all these songs are inspite of the fact that the scenes in my head are probably 100% right on for the majority of the world.

I think for most, Christmas is not a time of joy or one of love. 

I imagine that for most, Christmas is a time when you might act cheerful for the sake of your loved ones sprawled out across couches old and new and kitchen chairs reenlisted from the basement. But in reality, I imagine that Christmas is a time when parents look at their aging children and think,

"is this all I could do for my children?" 

I imagine that Christmas is a time when the children think, "Another year has gone by and I still don't have a house."

"Another year has gone by and I still don't have my degree."

"Another year has gone by and I'm still not married."

"Another year has gone by and we still don't have kids."

I imagine that Christmas is a time when parents also think, "Another year has gone by and they still don't have kids!"

So I don't think Christmas is the happiest, most joyous, merriest time of the year. I think the more we are peddled the propoganda that it is, we experience an inverse reaction. I think we end up reflecting on all the things we yet again, do not have in our lives. In fact, maybe it's even more depressing for you who are sitting around with your families?

Marshmallows. The big kind. Not the little kind that are mostly dry and cardboardy. The ones that you can only fit into a mug two at a time. Those make everything almost ok again.

And i figured out why. And they are so much more than that.

Actually, Marshmallows. Marshmallows are the secret magical tallisman, charm, mantra, prayer, "the Secret," to making everything you want come true. Marshmallows are the secret of happiness.

Ever notice that (and if you haven't, quickly run to the nearest 7-11 and get yourself some Ovaltine Hot Coco and a Bag of Extra Large Marshmallows and follow along) in the depths of your most depressing reflections of everything you want and still have-not, when you take a sip of that otherwise unremarkable hot chocolate, and instead of getting hot chocolate in your mouth, you just get air because the flow of hot chocolate is being blocked by that insanely gynormous marshmallow you braved minus wind chill factor and snow uphill both directions for, you stop.

Yes. You stop (go ahead, since we are all paused here, go ahead and reread that last run-on sentance of a paragraph. We'll all wait for you).

OK. 

In that one surprising little moment, you stopped churning the vat of unrequitted desires. In that one surprising moment, you let yourself be surprised. In that one moment, you were in the moment.

You stop drowning in the dark swirling sewage of your unfulfilled desires.  

And all it took was a giant white panda nose of a marshmallow to give you an eskimo kiss and your back arched the right way, your blood pressure went down, your frown turned around, and you broke out in the tiniest of nearly undetectable smiles.

Ahhh, now this is when the real miracle takes place.

The moment you decide to conquor that cylindrical archnemesis of the flow of your coco, the moment you open your mouth wider than your widest yawn, the moment you (you just yawned didn't you?) pop that marshmallow in your mouth, everything changes.

You realise you have a huge marshmallow in your mouth. 

You, at least for an instant, are confronted by the choice of whether to chew or swallow. And it's at that orally challenging moment that you smile. You can't help it. You have to smile.

The marshmallow made you. 

More accurately, its the realization that you HAVE a marshmallow that made you smile.

In that transformative moment, the (noon-chi) from your parents for not having accomplished more in your life, the self loathing for still being single or overweight or whatever becomes totally and utterly impotent. You are, for that moment, happy.

And the strangest things begin to happen from that moment forward. Your little sister, with a surprised look on her face compliments you. You get a text message from an old crush asking you out on a date, your pulse goes up, your metabolism rises, you burn fat faster, you get thinner, you meet your old crush of a date, you get married, pop out 3 marshmallowy kids and before you know it, you have everything you ever wanted. 

No. Really.

That's how it works. Did you miss the magic? Let's replay that in slow mo shuhn.

The moment, you started to focus on what you HAVE and not what you DON'T HAVE, you began a delicate and fragile chain reaction. It's a chain reaction that requires vigillance and discipline to maintain. The slightest shard of a moment spent reflecting on what you do NOT have will break this most powerful manifesting (i used that word just for you new-agey people) chain ritual in the universe -- happiness. It's the most powerful manifesting ritual in the universe.

Here's why...

Happiness is a state of being. You don't have to pursue it. There are no prerequisites for it. Well, there are. But if you are able to conceptualize happiness, you already have all the prerequisites for it. Whoever seeded the idea that the 'pursuit of happiness' is a right did humanity a huge diservice. 

It is in that state of being that you become a furnace of "make-shit-happen." People are attracted to happy people. Animals are attracted to happy people. While difficult to prove, even luck is attracted to happy people.

While misery loves company, it doesn't necessarily get it. Happiness doesn't need company. But it gets company and so much more.

Here's how it works...

Who was that investing guru billionaire who that said, "You CAN put all your eggs in one basket. You just have to watch it very closely."

When you are miserable, you end up miserable because you are focusing on all the things you want. You are miserable because your focus is on all the things you do NOT have. In otherwords, you are throwing the precious darts of your mental and emotional energy at a dart board that doesn't exist. You are wasting all your darts.

Concurrently, because you've taken your eyes off of all the things you DO have, those eggs get picked off by chance, cooincidence, people, circumstance, and other vultures.

So Fuck Goals.

Goals just make you realize how unaccomplished and pitiful you are compared to everyone else. 

And while you are striving after your financial, personal, or whatever goals, you lose your precious wife, health, and even the love of your kids.

On the other hand, if you focus on what you DO have, your energy goes there like drops of rain and rays of sun. Your energy goes to the roots of the things you do have. And it's only natural that the things you already have blossom. 

Be Happy. It's Quite Possibly the Fastest Route to Happiness.

If you don't have a house, you have the ability to save for one. If you don't have a husband, you have the ability to get one. If you don't have health, you have a body that can heal.

Who was it that said, "To those who have, more will be given. To those who do not, even what they have will be taken from them and given to those who have." (Hint: It's supposedly his season)

And remarkably, the practice of focusing on what you do have, is the soup base, the hot coco packet, the rock in the rock soup of being happy.

Merry Christmas. May 2012 Be Filled With All The Things You Ever Wanted (Without Even Wanting Them)!

Someone once asked the Dalai Lama what surprises him most. This was his response:

Man, because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then he dies having never really lived.

B) Raise Them (Raise Them So High That You Get Excited About Them Again)

New Audiobook Based On Your Comments on Frustration Coming Soon!

What ever you do, be it, artist, designer, musician, accountant, web hosting company in london, etc... Help HUGH come up with his next cartoon. He is a world reknown political commentator. He is a philosopher. And what I like best about him, he just calls himself a cartoonist.

If he likes and publishes your cartoon concept, you'll get that much more attention for what you do and be farther along in your reach out to the people who move the world. The people who love and respect Hugh are good people. You'll want them to know your name.

see: http://twitter.com/gapingvoid/statuses/12560649162858497

THEN... dream up things you wish your IPHONE DID and submit at http://thingsiwishmyphonedid.com

So? What do you think? Comment below with your ideas... and lets send in the best ones.

via http://rawksoup.com/success.html

http://rawksoup.com/neighborhood/pg/blog/developer/read/3745/special-offer-work-for-private-mp3

They Shared the Same Attitude: "I Have Nothing to Lose and Everything to Gain."

Andrew Fashion, the 21 year old who made $2.5 Million, blew it all by 22. Now, he's at it again.

"The Greatest Amount of Money You Will Ever Lose is the Money You Never Make" -- Rupert Murdock and J.D. Rockefeller

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