A perennial question echoes down the centuries: Whence happiness? It doesn’t take long to realize what doesn’t make people happy—wealth, possessions, prestige, and intelligence. We all know people with very little of what the world might value who seem to be quite happy. And we see apparently successful people who are miserable. Happiness seems elusive to some, like a butterfly, always out of reach, forever for somebody else. Yet it’s what we long for more than anything in the world.
A wise religious leader said: “Happiness is not given to us in a package that we can just open up and consume. Nobody is ever happy 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Rather than thinking in terms of a day, we perhaps need to snatch happiness in little pieces, learning to recognize the elements of happiness and then treasuring them while they last.”1
So what are the elements of happiness that we can treasure? They’re available to everyone: a strong commitment to family, friendship, spirituality, and the sense that life has meaning beyond the here-and-now. Hope is essential—the belief that tomorrow will come and will be better—as is gratitude for the small, simple things that lighten the soul. And although there may be those whose natural disposition tends to be happy, happiness can be learned.
We can determine to look for happiness in little pieces: a beautiful vista that reminds us of the splendor of creation; the unbridled joy and laughter of children; accomplishing a worthwhile task, learning something, or developing a new skill; the deep satisfaction of extending ourselves to others in love and kindness.
Because these things seem small, we’re inclined to miss them in our intense pursuit of happiness. Maybe happiness is simpler than we sometimes think. Maybe instead of trying to catch the butterfly, we can just enjoy her visit for a while.
Program #4078
1. James E. Faust, “Our Search for Happiness,” Ensign, Oct. 2000, 2.