To be happy

After a somewhat down in the dumps week, I spent a lot of time this weekend thinking about happiness.  What it means to be happy, what makes people happy, and how we can tell if we really are happy. 

I didn't arrive at a sound answer for any of those ponderings.

And that is because there is no universal answer.  People go their entire lives searching for happiness and sometimes never stumble upon it.  People go their entire lives thinking they are happy, and sometimes discover that isn't exactly the case.  

As we age and mature, I believe we are more open and able to finding happiness from the smallest and sometimes most unexpected sources.  It is important to recognize these sources and embrace them, especially when some of the more dominant forces in our lives are not always sources of pleasure.  

Nobody wants to be unhappy, and yet people choose to be unhappy all the time; whether it's with a job they don't enjoy, a city they don't like living in, or people they don't like to be around but feel they have to for one reason or another.  Sometimes these choices are unavoidable.  Sometimes they are merely ignored.  Unhappiness is usually much easier to stumble upon than its counterpart, and at some point we really need to ask ourselves why that is. 

Could it be a mental thing?  A lack of perspective?  Or do we really have to work that much harder in order to feel that blissful feeling of just being....happy.  

A complicated subject with many avenues to explore.  A complicated question that begs an impossible answer.  Are you happy?

I feel that a weekend is not time enough to come to the root of the question.  For as simple as some of my sources of joy, there are others that aren't as easy to explain.....or attain.  At this point I am learning that happiness, true happiness, is akin to a long run rather than a sprint. 

I'm prepared to slow down in order to enjoy the rewards.