Happiness

     Some people seem to work all their lives and find it.  Others seem to drift aimlessly through life and have it all around them.  What am I talking about?  Happiness!

     It has been said that happiness is as elusive as trying to catch a butterfly.  The harder you try to obtain it the more it escapes your grasp.  If you forget about the search, it will light upon your shoulder.

     I’m not sure if that is a true analogy of happiness, but it certainly does evade the lives of many people.  But, I think there is a more plausible understanding to the matter.  I feel that the reason so many have not been able to find happiness in their lives is because they have the wrong definition of what happiness really is.

    One definition of happiness provided by Merriam-Webster is a state of well-being and contentment.  Therein lies the problem for so many.  They are never content with what they have.  Even when they say that “this or that” level of attainment will make them happy, when they achieve that level they are no longer satisfied with it and want to have something more!

     We have all done that type of thing before.  I recall after I graduated from High School and had a nice government job my thoughts were “if I could only make $10,000 per year I would have it made.”  Of course, for some of you that type of thinking will only be giving away my age.  But that is what I thought.  Many years later my thoughts were “if I only made $10,000 per month I would have it made!”  Certainly that shows the change in my view of what would bring happiness.

     I think maybe we should not be worrying so much about finding that elusive happiness in our lives as we should be more concerned with understanding the word contentment better and how we can infuse that concept into our life.  The problem we always run into is that we’re only human!

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"Happiness is knowing how to be content 

regardless of the present circumstances."