Make Yours a Happy Life

As we move into this brand new year, I’m thinking about how 2024 can be better than the one we’ve just transitioned out of.

- Junious Ricardo Stanton

What it will take on our part to make life this year better? The words to Curtis Mayfield’s song sung by Gladys Knight and the Pips as part of the sound-track for the 1974 film Claudine Make Yours A Happy Home comes to mind.

Mayfield wrote, “...Make yours a happy home, We can do it, we can do it, we can do it now, baby Uuh yeah, I get full of pride and so sanctified You don't have to be for me No superstar I love you just the way you are So won't you make yours a happy home Make yours a happy home…”

The song’s lyrics and beat are up-tempo, and the vocals by Gladys Knight and the Pips are great, but for me, the main attraction is the message in the music. It is a good one, a message of empowerment that says you have the ability to make yours a happy home, and this is so true.

We each have the agency and wherewithal to make our lives happy because happiness is an inside job. True happiness, genuine happiness is not dependent upon external circumstances; the amount in our bank accounts and our worldly possessions do not determine the joy, peace, and contentment we have in our lives. We have the power to control our thoughts and our passions. We have the ability to create positive images in our minds to make plans based upon these images using the intensity we invest in our goals and plans to manifest them in our lives.