What makes us happy?
Many people would answer that question by naming things or
people in their lives: my kids, camping,
painting, my new car… That sort of
thing.
Indeed, things we do, people we know, items we own
contribute toward a sense of happiness. However,
there is, it seems, a difference between being happy and feeling a sense of
happiness, which, I think, is something more acute than general and genuine
happiness. People who are “in love”, for
example, will say that they are happy. This,
of course, is the endorphins talking.
Ask those same people ten or twenty years into the relationship and you
are very likely to get a very different answer.
So, what is happiness?
Merriam-Webster defines it as “a state of wellbeing and contentment; joy.” Interestingly, happiness used to mean good
fortune; prosperity. That definition
must have been dropped when someone coined the phrase, “Money can’t buy
happiness,” which is, by definition, seems to be a bit of an oxymoron in that
context.
Let’s go back to a state of wellbeing and contentment; joy,
and break that down.
Contentment: a feeling
or state of being contented - which, in turn means - feeling
or showing satisfaction with one's possessions, status, or situation. Thus contentment is being satisfied.
Well-being: the state of being happy, healthy or
prosperous. (Hmmm…)
Joy:
the emotion evoked by
well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one
desires.
According to MW, happiness appears to
be intrinsically related to concepts that are normally associated with material
wealth and prosperity. So, of course
money can’t buy happiness; it is happiness!
But is it really? Wealth itself is not, I think, what makes
people happy. Like everything, the
attitude and actions associated with wealth are more likely to determine if a
person is happy than just being wealthy is.
Yesterday, I accompanied my daughter,
her in-laws and her friend to a little lake nestled in the mountains about a
half-hour away from my home. My first
impulse upon receiving the invitation to join them was to say no. But I didn’t.
I said yes.
We arrived at the lake shortly after
ten in the morning. The sky was
overcast, but the air was warm and the lake was calm. We started a fire, pulled out the snacks we
had all brought to share, unloaded the 4-wheeler and the canoe and settled in
for the day. A family of five – Mom,
Dad, boy, girl and dog – were already there.
They were out on the lake in two paddle boats. We discussed the merits of paddle boats and
canoes while we jockeyed for position out of the smoke from our fire.
M decided to go for a ride on the
4-wheeler, so B and I donned life vests and pushed off shore in a canoe that M
had borrowed from a neighbour for the day.
It’s been at least 34 years since I’ve sat in one of these tippy little
boats. The last time that I can recall going
canoeing, was when I was sixteen at Manning Park. I loved it then. I loved it yesterday. It was amazingly, wonderfully, fabulously,
incredibly awesome.
I was happy.
 |
| First time in a canoe in over 30 years! Fabulous! |
And it didn’t cost anything.
