The Nature of Happiness

As I watched the early light I got to thinking about the nature of happiness; perhaps it takes a whole lifetime to become aware of it. We have it like a hidden pearl, or we have it not. It is something within ourselves. It is a quality of personality, and therefore no one human being can give it to another. We may surround our lover, husband, wife, friend with everything we can do for them, but in the end each man makes his own  happiness in the adjustment of his personality to living. 

This is the reason the happy people you know are often those who seem to have least. They are the mature people, who accept life and its limitations and still respond with a quality of joy to it.

I reflect further,  if we cannot give it to people, does that mean that we should not do things for others? Certainly not. We should live every day so as to give the most to those around us. The best of life is the sharing of ourselves, the giving. 

Book of Stillmeadow, July