This hour
Happiness- not in another place, but this place, not in another hour, but this hour.―Walt Whitman
Happy? Is that all we were meant to be? Haven’t you heard that finding what you were meant to do and doing it makes you supremely happy? Doing the work that you love, is like not working at all.
Is happiness elusive for some people? Are some people afraid to be happy?
There is no home safe enough, there is no country nice enough, there is no relationship secure enough. You’re just setting yourself up for an even bigger fall and having an incredibly boring time in the process. ― Meg Ryan as Kate
Happiness is defined as being happy by Merriam Webster.
1: favored by luck or fortune : fortunate <a happy coincidence>
2: notably fitting, effective, or well adapted : felicitous <a happy choice>
3 a : enjoying or characterized by well-being and contentment <is the happiest person I know> <a happy childhood>
b : expressing, reflecting, or suggestive of happiness <a happy ending>
d : having or marked by an atmosphere of good fellowship : friendly
I think Walt was describing that sense of well being and contentment and feeling fortunate when he stated that its here in this place and this hour. What if someone is “waiting for the bluebird of happiness” to arrive or waiting for some special event to then ” be happy” ? Will it ever be the right place or the right time? How long will it last? If you don’t have it right here and right now, how can you be sure its “out there” and you will know how to appreciate it in that moment? You don’t. Its like a fairy tale- waiting for the sweet ending where “and they lived happily ever after”. Those stories work well for Disney and we only have to wait about 2 hours to get to this part that lasts forever. Unfortunately, following this pattern of waiting and waiting for years or searching in place after place will close the curtain on your life with “if he could have only lived long enough or traveled far enough” he could have lived happily ever after.
Other people can tell when a person is not inherently content, pleased or feeling good about their life. Many marriages have ended because one partner was seeking happiness elsewhere, when everything they could have wanted was right then and there. Searching for diamonds, when they are in your own back yard? How many of us have tried the geographical cure? It is so sad to see people who find out like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz– she had what she needed to go home to Kansas- the whole time. Children are especially skillful at finding happiness wherever they are- right then. There might be some in this bucket- she sure seemed to think so when she played with the minnows!
You can journey to the ends of the earth in search of success, but if you’re lucky, you will discover happiness in your own backyard. ― Russell H. Conwell.
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