This is a follow on to a post about “Why are we Here” which I received some nice compliments about…..
Not particularly original, but I’ve come to a conclusion that life is essentially a struggle.
For everyone.
Its a struggle trying to win the race to create life (see aforementioned post), its a struggle being born, early years are a struggle, old age is a struggle as faculties wilt, its a struggle for some when it comes to dying, and for most people its a struggle every day.
And to me, that makes sense.
Nature is all about struggle. Animals, trees, flowers, insects all struggling every day to just keep on keeping on.
Dont get me wrong, I dont mean it’s shit. See the aforementioned post.
Its just a struggle, whether its money, love, emotion, sickness. For most people, it’s a struggle to varying degrees.
And I don’t believe that winning the Lottery or ‘Dropping out” of society makes it any easier one way or another.
Sure, we’d all like a chance to find out what it would be like to have millions of pounds in the bank, but from what I’ve seen (and I’ve seen a lot of rich people) it just brings another set of challenges to struggle through. Albeit in a nicer car, or nicer shoes.
So, is anyone ever happy?
Well of course they are. There are many thing that make us happy, the smile of a baby, good sex, nice wine, drugs, kittens, whatever, there are many things that make us happy,
but what does it mean to be happy?
My conclusion is simply this.
Amongst the highs and lows of the struggle of our daily life, there are moments which distract us from the struggle.
Moments which engage us so completely that they allow us to forget the struggle for a while.
These moments I think, are Happiness.
I don’t believe that anyone is really happy all the time unless they are
a) mentally unstable or b) medicated,
but I think those people who go through life and seem to be happy, are just the ones who have learnt to focus on the little snippets of happiness throughout the day, and manage to concentrate on them, rather than the struggle.
Consequently, the sad people are the ones that either choose, or are forced by circumstance to concentrate on the struggle.
I’m therefore trying to make myself a happier person, by looking out for the moments in my day that allow my attention to slip from the struggle for a moment or a minute or maybe longer if I’m lucky.
People, jokes, a job well done, music, poetry, art, food, love, likes, those little moments when you accomplish something that makes you feel for a minute or two that you got one over on the struggle, that for a short time you were winning!
I’ve resolved to try and look for more of them.
Because I think that Wealth, can be measured by how many of those little moments of happiness we have in our day, and I think we’re all a lot wealthier than we realise, if we can just start to look out for them.
Now, this may sound like a load of old Hippy bollocks, but I’m pretty sure I’m right.
Think about it, what happened to you today that made you, just for a moment, forget the struggle?
Whatever it was, get more of it into your life……