Happiness—No Big Thing – Sunday, August 16, 1981
A newsmagazine noted that the question most people once evaluated themselves by was, “Am I doing right?” Then that question was replaced by “Am I getting ahead?” But today many of us hear from a slightly tinny inner voice, ” Am I having fun?”1
Well, there’s nothing wrong with the pursuit of happiness. It was even cited as an inalienable right in the Declaration of Independence. But we do have to worry when we realize that for too many that pursuit is a tiring and empty one. Some of us lie awake at night, plod through our daily routines always wondering, “When is it my turn?” We hope we’ll be happy when this particular pressure has eased, when the bills are paid, when we get organized, when we get a promotion, when we finally have something to look forward to. And then the anticipated event occurs, and we are still saying plaintively with Walt Whitman, “Where is what I started for so long ago? And why is it yet unfound?”2
If it is not found, perhaps we have been searching in the wrong place. Happiness is not a roller coaster moment, a giddy laugh, a constant good time. It is not even a supreme ecstatic hour, a dramatic high. It is the art of learning to celebrate life’s small gifts, of making much of little things. Happiness is not tomorrow’s promise. It is in this minute or not at all.
A newspaper editorial once observed that, “There is an evident effort in nature to be happy. Everything blossoms to express beauty as well as lead to fruitage. Even the inorganic fashions itself into crystals that absorb and flash back…Man has no right to be an exception—the only pessimist in the universe.”3
We should avoid being that pessimist. We shouldn’t expect happiness to be what it cannot be—a constant exhilaration.
If our morning is greeted with the sunshine jiggling through our curtains, then that’s enough gift for today. If we catch the fragrance of orange blossoms, if a stranger does something nice, or a child makes us laugh, then that’s enough gift for today. Small things, every day gifts have the power to make every day happy. When we stop scrutinizing ourselves to see if the world is making us properly glad, our eyes are suddenly free to see a thousand other beauties, to see the joy in the morning. That’s enough gift for today,
1 U.S. News & World Report, August 27, 1973, pg. 38.
2 Ibid. pg. 36.
3 Editorial: The Outlook, “Happiness, Peace. Sorrow, Discouragement,” Richard Evans Quote Book, Publishers Press. pg. 145
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August 16, 1981
Broadcast Number 2,713