Author Amy Bloom, writing about happiness in The New York Times Book Review Jan. 31, 2010 (”The Rap on Happiness”), says, ”The real problem with happiness…[is] happiness itself. Happiness is like beautify: part of its glory lies in its transience. It is deep but often brief….To hold happiness is to hold the understanding that the world passes away from us, that the petals fall and the beloved dies.” She adds that no matter how much joy we may receive from good times, from, say, experiencing the sun on our faces, nothing can ‘’save us from the adult understanding that it cannot last forever.”
Her words touched me and also saddened me. I am in mourning for an old friend who just died, and the loss of her has shaken both my wife and me and left us with a sense of hopelessness. There is another void in our lives now which we will not be able to fill — her friendship brought happiness to our lives. Her lingering death in a hospice shook me up. It follows the earlier sickness of my own wife during the past year and my own illness the year earlier. I have tried to learn once again to take nothing for granted, including happiness, but to do my best to enjoy whatever good and joy may enter our lives, even if it is only temporary.
But happiness seems to remain elusive at times.
What about you? Are you happy? What makes you happy? When have you been most happy in your own life? Are you able to accept the fact that happiness may not last forever, or have you found a way to be as happy as you can each day?
Please share.
