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What is Happiness?

"You do whatever you're happy to do!
 If you're happy I'm happy"

This was the message I received 
from my future daughter-in-law this morning
regarding some wedding plans.

These two lines and this photo
made me feel happy, for two reasons?
One, the memory of our happy double birthday celebrations,
and
two because she was concerned about my present happiness.
This made me think about happiness ~
 I definitely was happy on our double birthday celebration,
but as you can see with some pensiveness, 
where did this come from?

I have recently been looking at what happiness is 
in a course on Practical Philosophy.
It was proposed that 
'happiness is our natural state',
but it gets 'covered over', 
happiness 
 was likened to the light emitted
 from a light bulb, 
that could be impaired by gathering dust,
needing to be removed
periodically to keep it shining brightly.

What do you think?

Comments

Annie Jeffries said…
I'm deeply moved by the analogy of dust and happiness. Nothing could be more apt.
Miss Robyn said…
I love that!! oh what fun to jump like that, I might just try it.
I think sometimes life happenings can be the dust.. and yes to remove that.. or rather not remove but to heal whatever is dulling our light. know what i mean?
Charlotte said…
Well Mum, it's February already so almost time for a spring clean to let our happiness shine through. Love you xxx
rebecca said…
i am filled with such love for you....
i want to stand in an open field where we throw countless armfuls of leaves into the open waiting sky.

xoxoxxooxoxo,
rebecca
Hello dearest Sue,
I so miss coming to your blog all the time. And look what your are doing, waxing philosophical suddenly. How wonderful . I love this photograph of you and your future daughter in law together ~ she running and jumping and you trying to hold your balance, steady at the helm. I think that sometimes ( and Kazantzakis says this in Zorba but I am paraphrasing) that we do not know happiness while we are experiencing it, but it is only after the moment has passed and we can look back upon it that we realize, sometimes with nostalgia or regret, how happy we were. It is a strange phenomenon because most all of us know when we are experiencing sadness and no one has to tell us so. I have a lovely poem for you from Naomi Shihab Nye on Happiness. Here is the link. It is a favorite. http://www.panhala.net/Archive/So_Much_Happiness.html.
Much Love,
Noelle
Anonymous said…
I suspect that true happiness would be giving Mrs S my last Rolo.

You do look a little pensive in the photo. Was it taken in your living room? Had something just snapped?

Have a nice (happy) day, Boonie
Becky Chalet said…
It is so sweet of your future-daughter-in-law to have said that. You are blessed. Thank you for visiting.

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