Happiness

What is it that makes us happy?  For many of us it’s a good book. Finding that story that we just can’t put down, and then as we approach the back of the book seriously hope that it will never really end. Perhaps that’s one reason that electronic books are so popular. You can’t see the end of the book coming. Oh sure we suspect that the detective will eventually find out who killed the body that we found in the first five pages of the book, or discover who it was that stole the silly statue of the Falcon, but we’re having so much fun that we don’t want it to end. All right it’s possible that as someone who writes books I may be prejudice as to what can make someone happy.

It is interesting that what can make some of us happy can make some others miserable. For instance the laugh of a very young child. For some it is the epitome of unsuspected joy. That gurgling giggle that forces us to seek out the creator of that wonderful sound, and bask in the pure joy that it represents. To see that child find for the first time that holding out an ice cream cone to a dog will result in that slobbering lick that will take almost the entire cone from their hand. It may seem a tragic thing that the child has lost its treat, but to the young finding that it can cause a dog to do such an unsuspected thing is amazing. Or perhaps it is something as simple as watching a mother play peek-a-boo. Just holding her hands in front of her face and then opening them to reveal her smiling face to the bewildered child can cause minutes of laughter. It can make you stop whatever you were doing to share in such joy.

For others that laughter is a disturbance to whatever they were doing. This can be especially true for those who were speaking and find their audience turning away from their pearls of wisdom to listen to the child.  “Why is it,” they ask themselves that people want to spend their attention with that annoying sound rather than find enlightenment from their words.  I have seen an entire airplane’s passenger compartment smile at just such a sound, and then notice the one or two special people frowning at what has caused their movie watching experience to turn into a jumble of non-associated sounds.

We are different. Why is it that some of us will look down as we walk along and see a small daisy and smile at the unexpected bit of beauty, while others are disturbed at the intrusion of that floral invasion of an otherwise smooth lawn?  Does the spring rain bring the water that those thirsting forsythia need to break into bursts of yellow beauty, or will it just make the path too slippery to walk on.  Does the sun that surprises us on a March morning bring the promise of warm summer days after the cold of winter, or is it just an annoyance that we have dressed to warmly for the walk to the store?

Does driving past a church as the bridal party departs in a cacophony of horns and confetti cause you to smile and share a small slice of their joy, or bemoan the intrusion into your drive to work and the traffic jam that may result.  Is a star lite night something that causes you to pause and look up at the grandeur of the universe, or does it bring to mind the dangers of the darkened way home?

Happiness is simply what we make of it. Take joy in being alive, don’t fear the end that must someday come.