How to be happy: 'Don't predetermine the shape of happiness'

Today's flower is the shishito pepper.

The flower language is 'old friend'.

Unexpected encounters
can sometimes turn into wonderful relationships.

Last year, I
learned that from my home garden.

Last year, thinking I would start a home garden,
I bought two bell pepper seedlings.

I planted them in a small patch in the garden,
and looked forward to their growth while watering them.

However.

After a while,
the fruit on one of them looked strange.

No matter how I looked at it, it wasn't a bell pepper.

It was actually a jumbo shishito pepper.

Did I misread the seedling tag,
or was it a mistake at the store?
I still don't know.

'I intended to grow bell peppers, though.'

At first, I was a little disappointed.

But since it had grown so well, I decided to harvest it, and it was surprisingly delicious.
It was thick and satisfying,

and it was a hit with my family.
In the end,

I feel like I had more fun
than if I had only grown bell peppers.
The other day, I read a picture book called 'Want a Dog!'.

It's a story about how something might be different from what you imagined,

but before you know it, it becomes something precious.
That's the kind of story it is.

While reading it,

I remembered that jumbo shishito pepper.
We tend to think,

'I'll be happy if this happens,'
'I'll be happy if I get this.'
But in life,
things often don't go as planned.

Work is like that.
Encounters with people are like that.

Hobbies are like that.

Many things appear before us

in forms different from what we had imagined.

However,
unexpected joy

can be hidden within them.
If I had decided,
'It's a failure because it's not a bell pepper,'

I wouldn't have been able to taste the deliciousness of the jumbo shishito,
enjoy the conversations with my family,
or savor the joy of the harvest.

Happiness
doesn't always come in the form we imagined.
In fact,

it sometimes starts from the moment we think,
'This isn't what I expected.'

Just like the
jumbo shishito that came to our house last year.
Don't predetermine the shape of happiness.
I feel that just by doing that, the opportunities for life to become richer
will increase.

Books that influenced me in writing this article

'Want a Dog!' by Jon Agee

It's a story about a girl who wants a dog.

But the dogs at the shop
are a little different from the dog the girl had imagined.

I laughed many times while reading it.

And after I finished reading it,
I thought, 'Happiness doesn't always come in the form you imagined.'
Just like how I intended to buy bell pepper seedlings

but ended up growing jumbo shishito peppers, life has unexpected events.
But it is precisely within those unexpected events
that unexpected fun and joy

can be hidden.
It's a picture book for children,
but it's a book that teaches adults important things too.

I highly recommend it.

I have also compiled other 'Ways to be Happy' flowers
at the link below.
Please take as many as you need 🍀

Thank you for reading until the end.
I hope to see you in another article.
🍀 May you be happy 🍀