The first rule to happiness in general is to learn to love one's self. No, not that happy self-affirming drum circle, hair-and-skirt whirling fire blazing forest setting on fire summer camping bullshit loving one's self kind of love, but truly loving yourself for who you are and more importantly, who you are not (and by proxy will never be). The kind of self acceptance where someone can insult you with the truth and have it roll off your back like water off a duck and you can shrug it off (hey, if you're fat, you're fat, and you know it, ya dig?). That kind of love gives you a certain confidence and inner beauty nothing can shake for the life of you, and a light that radiates from within. Some people think of this as your soul. Some people call it god, or the spirit. I don't know, but I know that when you have it, you have this incredible feeling of light and peace and happiness, like a moment of floating through space.

Heaven.

Now that you're there; now you have to learn to give it away. You've learned to love yourself, now learn to let go of that and give that love to another person. Learn to put all your eggs in one basket. Learn to let another person into your life. Learn to let another person go first. Put aside your wishes to help someone else succeed, and put aside your dreams for just a minute to help someone else achieve theirs ((it makes you both better people to do it together). Learn to do something you really hate because it makes someone else smile. Take dancing lessons. Smile more often.

The time you spend by yourself is worthless, ultimately. All the things you manage to accomplish are meaningless if you have no one to share them with at the end of the day. If you don't have someone to hold you when you want to be held, what good is everything you have?

And when all else fails, adopt a golden retriever.

Oh so serious on a Sunday.