I don’t think happiness is something that you wait for and let come to you. In the same breath, it’s not a thing you vehemently pursue if it hasn’t yet arrived. It’s a feeling that strongly dictates its own terms and requires you to agree to them. I think happiness, like an eel, can be super slippery to hold onto for anyone. It is definitely something that requires ease, and not force. It’s the swell in your heart when you’ve just won a prize or reconnected with a long-distance partner. The leap in your feet when your results come in excellent, and the smile on your face when you’ve just had a coveted meal.
Many times, we confuse it with other feelings: excitement, wonder, joy. They share a resemblance, that much I will admit, but they don’t take you to the same places. Unlike the others, happiness requires something outside of yourself to make an appearance. It wills you to seek it and in your naivety, you hope that you find it, and yet it is the most elusive thing ever.
Happiness is beautifully wrapped in promises of eternity that it often never keeps, and I wish more people understood that this is simply its inherent nature. “Why don’t you climb this mountain? It’s likely that you could find me at the summit.” Such is the tricky way that it manifests in our hopes and dreams, telling us to do just one more thing, chase that extra high, push even further than the last time, and maybe then, we would eventually come face to face with it. Many times, we get lucky and we do get to experience it, but like a fleeting thing, it doesn’t stay.
It is important to acknowledge the fact that happiness visits but it doesn’t stay, and that is the way it is. Because in life and in our pursuit of things, happiness shouldn’t be the piece of cake; it’s only the cherry on top. And guess what? Cakes are still yummy even without cherries on top.
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