My happiness has grown up, too

The art of living does not consist in preserving and clinging to a
particular mood of happiness, but in allowing happiness to change
its form. . . happiness, like a child, must be allowed to grow up.
-Charles L. Morgan


The things that make me happy now tend to be very different from those things that used to make me happy when I was younger.  I feel very fortunate to be able to say this because I know many people who feel unhappy and dissatisfied with life because they're still trying to make themselves happy in the ways that used to make them happy, and those things just don't have the same effect any longer.

When I was much younger, I used to feel what I considered to be happiness when I bought certain things.  I used to feel happy when certain people paid attention to me, or even liked me.  I had been raised in a materialistic society that stressed acceptance by others as quite desirable, and so I grew up thinking I was happy when the things I had learned made happiness came to be.  Nowadays, though, such isn't the case.

These days, I'm happy waking up in the morning, looking out the window, and realizing that I have a safe place to live and food to eat.  I'm happy going for a walk and recognizing the fact that the trees are putting out oxygen and that I have fresh air to breathe and beautiful things to look at.  Many things that I love are completely unnecessary for my happiness--I love chocolate, but I don't need it to be happy.  I love my wife, but she and I have talked this over many times:  if one of us were to die tomorrow, then certainly we would go through grief, but we wouldn't necessarily become unhappy persons.

As I've grown up, my definition of happiness has changed, and it now allows for itself in situations that before would have been stressful or even frightening.  I don't put conditions on happiness any more, and that has made a huge difference in my life.  My happiness has grown up as I have, and it's a great feeling to have!  (Of course, this doesn't mean that many things of childhood can't still bring happiness--I still love doing many things that children do--but my happiness in that case is child-like, not childish!)