Happiness

            A year or two we watched a movie, Hector and the Search for Happiness, about a disillusioned psychiatrist’s search for an understanding of happiness. It was not a very good movie, but I did find a list of statements from the film’s narrator.

 

·      Making comparisons can spoil your happiness.

·      Happiness often comes when least expected.

·      Many people only see happiness in their future.

·      Many people think happiness comes from having more power or more money.

·      Sometimes happiness is not knowing the whole story.

·      Happiness is a long walk in beautiful, unfamiliar mountains.

·      It’s a mistake to think that happiness is the goal.

·      Happiness is being with the people you love; unhappiness is being separated from the people you love.

·      Happiness is knowing that your family lacks for nothing.

·      Happiness is doing a job you love.

·      Happiness is having a home and a garden of your own.

·      It’s harder to be happy in a country run by bad people.

·      Happiness is feeling useful to others.

·      Happiness is to be loved for exactly who you are. (People are kinder to a child who smiles.)

·      Happiness comes when you feel truly alive.

·      Happiness is knowing how to celebrate.

·      Happiness is caring about the happiness of those you love.

·      Happiness is not attaching too much importance to what other people think.

·      The sun and the sea make everybody happy.

·      Happiness is a certain way of seeing things.

·      Rivalry poisons happiness.

·      Women care more than men about making others happy.

·      Happiness means making sure that those around you are happy.

 

You might want to share your favorites, or perhaps add something new.

 

Kim says that her happiness comes from making other people feel happy. And watching the snow fall at night. And riding around back roads after a snowfall.      

 

I prefer joy to happiness.

Have a Happy New Year!

    --David and Kim