Kay:

Welcome back, Questers! It is Thursday, November 18th, and this is episode 469. It’s a very special day today because it’s actually National Princess Day. Interesting that we would call it National Princess Day seeing as our nation does not technically have any princesses, but I guess the Disney princesses count. Though today’s quote is not from one of them, it’s from an American princess herself who was I wouldn’t say stolen away but married away into another country. The one and only Princess of Monaco, Grace Kelly.

Shi:

Grace tells us, “I’ve had happy moments in my life, but I don’t think that happiness- being happy- is a perpetual state that anyone can be in. Life isn’t that way.”

Kay:

Now, Grace Kelly was an American actress who got swept off of her feet by the Prince of Monaco back in the mid-century of the 1900s. It’s a very fun story. If you want to go take a look at more of her tale, she became very famous for being the famous American actress turned princess, literal princess, but somebody who spent her life in one of the absolute richest countries in the world. Monaco per capita has more wealth. It’s tiny. It’s about the size of our community here in Reno, but Monaco per capita has more wealth than almost any other country, or at least it did in that day at that time. So, she lived in one of the richest countries in the world where she was literally royalty, and she was an American celebrity with all that success telling you that you can’t be happy all the time.

Shi:

Yeah. If you know us and you’ve listened to us, you know that our favorite book to recommend is one called The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer. We reference it often. It is definitely our number one book recommendation, The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer. Not in The Untethered Soul, but if you follow the teachings of Michael Singer, if you read his books, if you get into the lectures, if you’re like us, you love Untethered Soul and you follow down the path. One of the analogies that I just adore that Michael Singer shares, and that I think is really relevant here, is this analogy that the function of your heart in your life is to be your orchestra. It is to give you the soundtrack to your life. It’s going to produce the emotions that color how you feel when it’s happy, when it’s joy.

It’s a fast rhythm and it’s happy and upbeat music and when you lose someone close to you, it plays a beautiful sorrowful song of grief. When you’re studying, it’s got a concentration background vibe going on. The soundtrack to your life, the symphony, and the orchestration that provides this emotional symphony to your life.

When you think about it that way, there’s no way your heart, for as many years as you live can play one song. I think that’s what Grace is telling us here, that it plays happy, and it plays well. And some hearts can play happy for longer than others, and some plays are happier than others. Some are not. But it just can’t be the same song the whole time. That’s not what an orchestra or a symphony is meant to do, and it can’t sustain it at that level. So, if we just think about that analogy in this way, I think it helps illustrate the fact that there’s nothing wrong with not being happy all the time.

Kay:

Well, some of us might think about the concept of being happy and say, “I hear you, girls. But if I had a million dollars every month, I would be thrilled and so happy all the time or if I had all of the fame and recognition and could sell any book or any of my products at any given time, I would be perfectly happy 100% of the time.” You might have this idea, but this quote coming from someone like Grace Kelly, who no matter what you can imagine wanting in this world, this woman had it. She had the privilege, she had beauty, she had riches. She had everything that you could absolutely imagine from a material perspective, and she’s still saying that being happy is not a perpetual state that anyone can be in. Life isn’t that way.

So, when we’re able to recognize that the songs that our heart plays, the orchestra is always beautiful. Even when it’s scary and it’s intense and it’s playing and it’s ra-ra-ra, it’s a lot. And if you’re in the audience in an orchestra like that, it encompasses your whole body and you can barely look away and it’s enrapturing and you feel it in all of your might, but it’s still beautiful. It’s intense, but it’s still beautiful. The orchestra is always an orchestra. That doesn’t change, so how we define whether it’s good or bad ends up being what can dictate whether we stay not happy, but maybe peaceful along the ride.

Shi:

Gosh, I love that. That’s so beautiful Kay, and I think that that’s just a great way to bring us back to what Grace Kelly tells us here in this quote, which is, “I’ve had happy moments in my life, but I don’t think that happiness- being happy- is a perpetual state that anyone can be in. Life isn’t that way.”

Kay:

Alright. Today’s quest is the Thoughtful Thursday Quest. We want you to think a little bit about what makes you happy. What makes you really, really happy? Not the money and other riches. Come on, what makes you actually happy? For me, it’s going to bed knowing that I’ve washed my face, and I’ve brushed my teeth and I’ve done all of the things and my day is in order and I feel really good. That makes me really happy. So, think about that today and engage in whatever really, really lights your heart up. Are you ready?

Shi:

Let’s quest!