What I know to be true

Everyday I realize that there are fewer and fewer certainties in life. While it's not uncommon for me to find out that something I've held to be true for years is in fact false, it is far more frequent for me to learn about something new or something I've been completely oblivious to my whole life. And from these discoveries, I am slowly recognizing that we live in the uncomfortable reality where each of us know very little of what is known - and by definition, nothing of what is unknown. Said differently, each of us understand a very small slice of the pie.

Here's a few things I know (for now):

Happiness is not fleeting. It is not a reaction to events or outside catalyst, but rather is entirely controllable. It is a state of mind. You've either flipped the switch to be in a happy-state or a not-happy-state. Obviously the switch may be improperly wired (for those of us with chemical imbalances), but the vast majority of us have complete control over what type of person and what type of life we want to lead. It is a conscious choice to be an optimist or a pessimist, to be a lover or a hater, to be positive or negative. You write your own definition.

Parking is a bitch. It is also one of the many reasons why I feel blessed to not have car. That said, if I did have a car and I had to park it in the street - there is one spot I would avoid with all of my being. Just outside of my apartment, about 3 driveways down, there is a street parking spot underneath a tree. And just as consistently as the sun rises, a flock of birds crap like they've been drinking water in Mexico for months directly on the windshield of any car in this spot. I saw one guy park his car there for nearly a month, and I'm pretty sure he had to shovel shit off the windshield like it was snow. Don't park there. It is a trap.

Success is relative. It's not about where you end up or what the final score was, but rather it's the summation of what you accomplished. It's the difference between where you ended up and where you started. I'm confident that most people would agree with me here, I just don't witness many practicing this belief. So many of us are focused on people at the very top - the wealthy, the rich, the famous - and look right past some of the remarkable stories of the people around us (and I'm not excusing myself from that statement). That is a tragedy.