HAPPINESS
A horrible thing happened one fateful day and I thought that it surely would be the end of my life. I could never be the same again. I thought “I am never going to be happy again. I will never be hopeful of anything”. As I could not see what good that incident brought about in my life, I felt victimized. Often people have this feeling when in deep trouble, as if the whole world is going against them. I lived in that pits of darkness for a few days, and was very sure that the rest of my days will be same gloomy ones.
But then I saw a bright sunny day, nature being in its full bloom, and then I thought life does not really seem that bad. I took a deep breath trying to ignore the past, and then I thought I feel better but I will never be the same happy person once again. But my life still has something to it. That was my first step. Then came another day when I watched a very good movie, full of life all good things that it give a person, I thought Life must be good for some people at least. I was sure that some people were meant to be lucky and so they were happy.
Days went by very slowly as I painfully tucked myself in that little shell of self imposed exile. I was not able to relate to anything happy, is what I thought. Then a good friend came by, she with her pretty smile, and I started enjoying talking to that one person. Something about her cheerfulness has left a mark on me. Obviously she did leave some part of her smile in me. I started doing things which I never thought were important for being happy and I realized, I was still alive inside. Just as all the trees that wither totally in rough weather and then bloom again when spring arrives, I was not dead. I realized that I could be happy too.
One thing led to another one, and slowly I got back to life. I was having hopes, I was making up plans in my own small way to live a happy life. This time I made sure that my plans were not great ones which looked at long term prospects, or those which were key to happiness as defined by the world. They were my own unique ways of leading a happy life. I did not feel the need to check their meaning in the dictionary of the world. I just knew one thing – I can be Happy.
I wondered then, for days “how could I be happy ? Hell broke loose on me and how could I still be happy ?” Then a sudden flash of realization came to my mind. Happiness is not based on the incidents that occur in our lives, but rather happiness is a state of mind. Happiness is our ability to enjoy simple pleasures of live. It might be a nice cup of coffee on a chilly morning, a never ending conversation with a long lost friend, or a breath taking view which captures your mind. That moment when you are experiencing it, that moment when you are happy, you are not thinking of all the troubles of your life. You are just a person in bliss. There is no past or future to that moment of bliss. One does not have to tag every single thing that happens with a tag of past or future. A true happy person only lives in the present. That is the only thing, that we know and are absolutely sure of.
Let me give a simple example, you can approach any person in the world and ask them if they are really happy in life and I am sure they will start thinking. It is taken as a very deep question because in fact it is a wrong question. Even the richest, most powerful and most beautiful ones will think a lot to answer that question about Happiness of Life. They think so much, because no one can be absolutely sure about that answer. But you ask someone going on a pleasure ride and ask them “ Are you happy now, at this moment ?” They will say that they are. So being happy about those small things which happen each day is more important than defining happiness of your life by those big things that we think are important for a Happy Life.
