Happiness

The long awaited trip was absolutely wonderful!  10 days spent with my two oldest granddaughters in Europe.  Traveling with Camille and Marilyn was truly a dream come true.  I’ve been thinking about happiness. Wondering how this generally elusive emotion found me on this trip.  Arthur Brooks in his book “Build the LIfe you Want" talks about the three components of happiness: enjoyment, satisfaction and purpose.   Check Check Check.  My goals were to blow the minds of these darling 15 year olds, to show them all the sites and activities I had painstakingly planned and finally, to connect deeply with them. I feel so happy and satisfied about all of it.

So . . .  what happens now?  As I settle back into the hum drum realities of real life, I wonder how to hold the happiness I experienced over the pond, and snuggle it into my everyday life.  Is that even possible?

The trick I think is to understand that humans were never meant to hold happiness indefinitely.  Happiness is a pursuit, it is a journey.  We can, of course, get happier every day, but I don’t think we ever arrive at the place where happiness lives permanently in us.  Happiness and unhappiness actually coexist inside of us all the time.  Unhappiness has so much to teach us, if we can sit with it and listen.  The secret to the best life is to accept unhappiness, so you can grow and learn. Living with all the emotions seems more like the complete human experience.  I don’t know anyone who completely avoids unhappiness. I love this saying:

Be Grateful for the Bees, not just the honey.

Ugh.  So hard to do sometimes. But if I love the honey of this trip…of my life… I have to also love the Bees that come along.  Gratitude is a strategy that keeps me on the path toward happiness.  Maybe it can get you there too?

With lots of Gratitude,

Kathie