Halfway to Happiness!

We are on the cusp of a New Year, and with that, we bring lots of hopes and ideas about what 2022 might look like. We engage in practices to improve our health, resolve to pay off the credit cards for good, and decide we’re going to live kinder, happier lives. In my own efforts to be healthier, I’ve been lifting weights to benefit my back and bones, and in the middle of a recent Youtube workout video, this message flashed on the screen: Halfway to Happiness!

I wonder about the idea of happiness as a destination and what it means for us as we journey through life. Though I can certainly relate to the happiness of being finished with a dumbbell workout (ugh!), I think about the other times when I felt like happiness was just around the corner or something I had to work for. Happiness seemed elusive and not a gift for simply being alive.

Rather than a destination, I’m trying to think of happiness as random moments of joy and pleasure that are sprinkled throughout each day. I’m trying to notice them: the warmth and comfort of the bed, that first cup of coffee, the sunshine on my back. When I focus on happiness as a destination, I miss what is right here and now. And in case you didn’t know it, the here and now is all we have. So I’ll focus on the moments of joy I feel during my thirty-second rest breaks in the dumbbell workout instead of waiting for it to be over. As 2022 comes around, I’ll be watching for happiness to show up and surprise me.