Monday, April 9, 2012


This is cliché, I know, but

H is for Happiness

Sometime back, I came across Abraham Lincoln’s quote: "People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be." And it got me thinking;

Is happiness a state of mind or is it achieved through perseverance?
Is it inherent to a person or is it something that you toil for?
Or is it a reaction?
Aren't there shades to happiness? After all, happiness at getting a new car is not the same as meeting a long lost friend or watching eagles ride lazily on the wind, their feathers trembling.
Is it the perspective? As Richard Bach says, "What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly."
Is it something that one recognizes only having gone through sorrow? Would we know light if we didn’t encounter darkness?
Is it a feeling that we perpetually tend to drown in a sea of what ifs and if onlys?

I’ve often been told that I ask too many questions.


9 comments:

  1. I've wondered many of these same questions. If I find out the answers I'll let you know.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Amanda! And be sure I will shout from the rooftops if I find out any of the answers. Only, I'm afraid, by the time I figure things out, I'd be too old to climb the roof.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wonderful. And I lolled at the last line. Your post reminded me of Tolstoy's quote -- "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." As a writer, it makes a lot of sense, but as a person, it makes happiness seem more cheap and dull than I think it truly is. I love being happy.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I forgot that it was Abraham Lincoln who said that. But I've always thought it was true.

    ReplyDelete
  5. No such thing as too many questions! ;-) New follower here. I’m enjoying reading my fellow “A to Z”ers. I look forward to visiting again.

    Sylvia
    http://www.writinginwonderland.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  6. I don't think it's possible to ask too many questions about happiness.

    Nice to meet you, and I hope you're enjoying the Challenge!

    KarenG
    A to Z Challenge Host

    ReplyDelete
  7. I read somewhere that CEOs of the biggest American companies have the same average happiness quotient as the villagers of African villages. I also read somewhere that money cannot buy happiness but it is more comfortable to weep in a BMW car than on a bullock cart.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for visiting! I'd really love to read your comments on my blogs/writing, so please feel free to leave a note.