Author Adire Lara
A lady I know finally stood on the weighing scale after eating butterless toast for two weeks and jogging around the park in frustration. The pointer always points to her initial weight. This is a typical thing that happened to her recently. She is doomed to be unhappy.
When she got dressed, she frowned and found that there was still 20 dollars in her pocket. Later her sister called it an interesting story. When she got off the bus in a hurry, she was so angry that she had to brag that she found that her roommate had set everything in the cupboard for her. This is the woman who thinks she can't be happy.
Every day, we seem to be overwhelmed by popular psychological advice about happiness. The cruel news is that we think doing something is the right choice to make ourselves happy, or we have the right to decide our beliefs. Our founding fathers who attended the Constitutional Convention even wrote about the pursuit of happiness in the Declaration of Independence.
Associated with the view that happiness is a long-term state, if we don't feel happy all the time, we will come to the conclusion that something must be wrong.
However, most people's experiences are not long-term happiness. This is a more common thing, which the essayist Hugh Prather once called "a mixture of unresolved problems, vague victories and defeats, and there has almost never been an obvious peace."
Maybe you won't say yesterday was a happy day, because there was a misunderstanding between you and your boss. But if this part of happiness is removed, will the rest be obviously peaceful? Now that you think about it, haven't any old friends or strangers written to ask where you got such a beautiful haircut? You only remember a bad day, but these wonderful moments exist.
Happiness is like a visitor, a kind-hearted aunt Tilly from a foreign country. She appeared in front of you when you were expecting her, drank with you heartily, and then quietly left, leaving a lingering fragrance of gardenia. You can't order her to show up, you can only be grateful when she shows up. You can't force happiness to happen, but you can be sure that you will know when it happens.
When you are walking home with a lot of problems in your head, try to look at the sun that reflects the windows of the city red. Listening to the shouts of children playing basketball in the dim light, feeling high emotions, just pay more attention.
Happiness is an attitude, not a situation. Listen to the aria, clean the blinds, or tidy up the closet and have fun. Happiness is a family reunion at dinner. It exists now, not in the vague promise of "one day …". How lucky we are and how much happiness we have experienced, as long as we love our life, we will know.
Happiness is a choice. Reach for it when it appears, just like a balloon floating to the sea in the bright blue sky.