Happiness is an Enigma

 

 

 

We say “Happiness” like it had one meaning, one connotation, but it is not.  Happiness is a loaded concept.  Behind the word is confusion, desire, expectation, desire and hope.  Happiness is a word that is comparative and judged and defined by one’s deepest longings.  I might mean ease, or well-being, or comfort, to one person.  To another, it might mean contentment, peace.  It might mean an inner sense or feeling.  It might mean an outer experience.  How do we recognize it when our meaning changes according to person, place, or thing?  Is it macro or micro?  No one else can tell us what our “Happiness” is. 

For optimists, happiness is a thing to get, to have, to look forward to in the future.  For a pessimist, ait is unreachable.  For some it has to do with body.  For some, intellectual.  For some, emotional, for some it is a spiritual thing.  For some it is fleeting.  For some, it is loaded with fear for if we find it, it might get taken away by person, place or thing.  For some, it is moments of awe.  For some it is all about receiving.  For some, it is giving.  For some, it is their main focus.  For some, it is something sustaining. 

“I am happy”, is totally a unique phrase that can only be defined by the one who says such.  It can be something we desperately search for, while missing the small joys and moments of awe because we are looking for something to give it to us, or someone, or something.  For me, it is an inner feeling that is transitory and ebbs and flows.  When I think about happiness, it usually means I am not, that I need something, someone, somewhere that fills me with comfort and succor.  For me, Happiness is momentary and ecstatic, in some way, because it does not come that often.  Usually I am just putting one foot in front of another – not uncomfortably so, simply just ‘being’.  When it strikes, it is notable. 

What does Happiness mean to you?

©Carol Desjarlais 8.28.20