making happy

April 27 2017

27 April 2017. We spend a lot of time seeking happiness. The feeling of happiness is so pleasing that it can be hard to accept that it can't be squeezed into stillness or submission. Like every things else, it comes and goes, like a cloud in the sky.

It's helpful to put things in terms of Vacation Happy versus Everyday Happy. On vacation, free from responsibilities and surrounded by new experiences, happiness comes easily.

In everyday life, we must find happy in the ordinary. Listening to the birds on your walk to work, reading on the couch with your feet up, slicing carrots and enjoying the feel of a good knife -- in each, there is an absorbed contentment where mind and body are in tune. This is the stuff of everyday happy. 

Most recently, a friend discovered this while typing on a typewriter. The process of typing slowed her thoughts until she was only listening for the satisfying snap of each letter, feeling the resistance of each key, and watching as words gradually formed and became rows of sentences. She lost track of time, and as she pulled her letter free, she felt lighter. 

Whatever task is coming next, perhaps you can find that in-sync-ness that signals, "Linger here, take it in."