Tell Them I Was Happy
On your own you can go ahead tell them Tell them all I know now Shout it from the roof tops Write it on the sky line All we had is gone now Tell them I was happy And my heart is broken All my scars are open Tell them what I hoped would be Impossible, impossible Impossible, impossible Impossible, impossible Impossible, impossible! Ooh impossible. Get minecraft for free.
Thank you, Rob. That means a lot to me, especially coming from someone I so admire. One of a wildly amazing things about life is that we’re not stuck with the traits and flaws we were born or raised with. Character traits such as gratitude, compassion, dedication, forgiveness, courage, are learnable traits.
I remember conscientiously working on gratitude when I was a bit younger. But now it is a spontaneous and authentic expression. So I spontaneously and authentically thank you for all you do and the warm spirit you exude and spread all over the blogosphere and right into peoples hearts — mine included!
That means so much to me, Wendy. Sorry I haven’t been around much of anywhere lately. So little commenting as I’m trying to organize my new ebook (thank you!!!), guest post at a few locations, create my ongoing newsletter and keep up with a few projects with some other bloggers I’ve connected with. All so crazy these days trying to juggle that with work and family. But no complaints! I love it all — just could use an extra couple hours in the day!
🙂 Thank you for everything! You were one of the very first people to leave a comment on my fledgling blog back some 7 or so months ago!
That too means a lot to me. What an excellent encouraging and meaningful article Ken. I have found that commendation, appreciation, and confidence are some of the most powerful feelings that we can share with others, and you covered all three beautifully. The more we focus or attention in a positive direction, especially when it comes to other people, the more we help raise the level of those relationships. It’s virtually impossible to overemphasize the life changing value of an attitude of gratitude. You rock my friend! Jonathan – Advanced Life Skills recently posted.
Jonathan, what can I say but that you’re awesome! I love your comment! I reread it a couple times already and just might go back and read it again! 🙂 As a high school teacher, I’ve seen the effect of gratitude and positive energy and simply caring what other people think and are concerned about over and over again. People are starving for that kind of recognition. It changes them in perceptible ways. Thank you for the encouragement, your brilliant wisdom and all you do at Advanced Life Skills and wherever you share your thoughts.
You absolutely made my day, Rita! Everything you wrote deeply touched my heart.
Thank you so much. But now the pressure is on — I’m going to have to keep producing quality work!
🙂 Tess is a powerhouse of a person, doing great stuff at her site. Now there’s two reasons to appreciate her. I’m so thankful you took a moment and clicked over from her FB post. It’s a treat meeting you.
I know what you mean about life sending messages. I think that’s happening all the time. It’s in the moments we’re ready to hear the message being sent that we recognize it as such. I hope to be that gentle breeze again as we travel the twisting road of life together! I was glad to write it, Naveen. It came from the heart. And yes, it’s true, I don’t take those who read my work for granted.
I feel an obligation to them, to produce work worthy of their precious time. (and to feature work by guest bloggers who produce great work too — Thanks for yours,!) And thank you for the kind words about my writing.
It is a passion of mine. I guess it has been for most of my life, only more recently has it become something I do daily.
It just feels good to do something your passionate about on a daily basis. Every day becomes more passionate! Be good, my friend!
Thanks Hiten! I meant every word of it. I’m glad I finally clarified the message behind what I do here. And it only took me 8 months to do it! 😉 Yep, I believe that with every fiber of my soul, that we were indeed meant to be happy. There is a design for us here and part of that design is for us to learn and grow and also to discover and uncover and develop happiness along the way.
You might even say that happiness is a sort of barometer, measuring how well we’re doing this thing called life. Thanks for all your support, my friend. Be good and God bless you too!
I’m looking for the word describing how I am feeling and not what I am wishing someone. Congratulations is an expression of prase or good wishes. If congratulate and congratulations don’t appeal to you, I will look for another word. Is it that congratulate doesn’t work for you because you are looking for a word to describe such feelings even when they are unexpressed?
Otherwise, perhaps we are looking at different reference materials. In my experience, and in my reference materials, the words congratulate and congratulations are not wishing someone anything. Rather it is expressing the reaction and feelings of the speaker. It is unlike “best wishes” or “good luck” or “ all the best” in that regard. Instead, it simply states exactly that right now I am rejoicing with you in your circumstance. While it is dangerous to argue the meaning from the roots, congratulate comes from the Latin with a meaning of “rejoice together.” Aside from the etymology, the reference materials clearly indicate a focus on the current feelings of the speaker, rather than on future events (emphasis mine): American Heritage To express joy or acknowledgment, as for the achievement or good fortune of (another).
ETYMOLOGY: Latin congrtulr, congrtult-: com-, com- + grtulr, to rejoice (from grtus, pleasing; see gwer-2 in Indo-European roots) Cambridge to praise someone and say that you approve of or are pleased about a special or unusual achievement However, key to these words is the idea of expressing the feelings. If you need to describe the feelings apart from the expression of them, then I will have to give it more consideration. Dulcimoo said: Yes thank you so much for the hard word you have put in.
However I am looking for the word to describe the feeling apart from the expression of said feelings. Congratulation(s) would be acceptable if I was looking to express the feelings which I am not. For my logic, the “for you” contradicts your desire to not express the feelings.
Who is “you” referring to without the expression? If you had said, “I am happy for someone!”, that sentiment can go unexpressed to that person. “Felicitations” is a less commonly-used synonym for “congratulations” (very common in French and Spanish, however). One could argue that it is a little bit more along the lines of “I’m happy for you” as it is etymologically constructed on the Latin word for “happy.” In practical use, though, it really just means “congratulations.” You probably need to cobble together a phrase for this exact meaning. “I share in your joy,” is sometimes heard, but “I’m happy for you” would have to be considered the idiomatic standard. What is important in language is not an exact translation in the same part of speech, but a correlative locution that achieves the same function. Trying to find an exact translation is especially difficult when going from an ideographic language to a phonetic one as the basic building blocks of meaning are different at the very foundations of the two idioms.
Impossible By Shontelle Lyrics
I agree with the above that “congratulations” or “felicitations” (probably not widely used; I would suggest “kudos” as another) are the closest we have in English to expressing appreciation for another’s good fortune. However, those words are subjectively indeterminate; that is, they do not identify who is offering the happiness for the listener’s success. I find it odd that I cannot think of a word that conveys both that there are good wishes for someone’s fortune AND that I am one bestowing those wishes. I am not sure what this phenomenon is — maybe it’s some inherent culture of envy in the predominantly-English-speaking countries. Perhaps each of us feel formally obligated to publicly appreciate the success of others, but one’s attributing that acknowledgment to oneself would connote a failure of oneself in the ubiquitous competition of life. (I am not agreeing with life as competition — I think I’m more laid back than that; I just think it’s a valid observation.) I’m not sure it’s really a problem, though, if you want to give that message. You can just say what your question posed as the definition of the word you are seeking: “I’m happy for you.” Just say it with a positive tone; otherwise it comes across as kind of sarcastic and mean-spirited.
The above post is very insighful. I believe I’m missing something in the deep background of the intentions of someone desiring to convey happiness for another while not wanting to praise them.
I don’t wish to criticize, but it seems disingenuous to attempt to convey happiness for another without a bit of praise tagging along. I believe that idiomatically, many words can’t be translated from one language to another. I find that Americans are much more effusive than other cultures.
Perhaps this is why you are finding it difficult to find an acceptable translation. All of the examples given are inherently praiseworthy. Any sentiment to express your happiness for another who has experienced a positive event will be taken at face value, when sincerely bestowed. The above post is very insighful. I believe I’m missing something in the deep background of the intentions of someone desiring to convey happiness for another while not wanting to praise them.
I don’t wish to criticize, but it seems disingenuous to attempt to convey happiness for another without a bit of praise tagging along. I believe that idiomatically, many words can’t be translated from one language to another.
I find that Americans are much more effusive than other cultures. Perhaps this is why you are finding it difficult to find an acceptable translation. All of the examples given are inherently praiseworthy.
Any sentiment to express your happiness for another who has experienced a positive event will be taken at face value, when sincerely bestowed. This started as looking for an English word to describe a concept of what I am feeling. I can give praise and congratulations on someone else, but the question is.
And am I feeling. My wife’s Mandarin/English translator translated the feeling into envy – which is not correct at all. I am looking for the single word that describes my joy at the good fortune of others. My the wishes I am conferring to that person, but what MY feelings are when I am happy (and not envious) for them. I don’t see what is disingenuous in this. My feeling and the wishes I am bestowing on another are to different things are they not? Perhaps English has no such single word?
I am truly sorry but it seems like many people will hate me for this. It’s very obvious what you are trying to find here. For example if your do not feel happy for someone success because you feel like you should be more successful, that word is to be envious or to be jealous.
Which also foretells your feeling of saying “I’m Not Happy For You.” Now that I have bored you with that long “sentimental” statement, I will tell you what you are looking for. A word that express your feeling of being happy for someone is to be “Sincere.” You’ve already found that answer when you first started but it seems like you are a bit blind to see it. You see the definition of sincere is:honest and unaffected in a way that shows what is said is really meant.
But it means a different thing when you use it as a feeling, which means to feel happy for someone. And if you need any proof just realize that when you write a letter and you end your enclosure with Sincerely, you truly mean “best of luck”.