It's a Thoreau Down Day Thing

Dear America,

"When I was 5 years old, 

my mother always told me 

that happiness was the key to life.  

When I went to school, 

they asked me what I wanted

 to be when I grew up.  

I wrote down "happy."  

They told me I didn't

 understand the assignment,

 and I told them, 

they didn't understand life."  

John Lennon

#262, from "Nothing is worth more than this day." book

indeed

now, it's not like we can run around being happy all the time, but the general sensation of happiness, satisfaction, contentment...in life... is definitely a fine aspiration, and one to hold close to our hearts and minds.

Granted, this thing called happiness seemed so essential in the early days of our founding, that it was mentioned within our Declaration of Independence..."we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness."

In proper context -- as it's declared, HAPPINESS, in and of itself, is NOT one of our "unalienable Rights;"  it's the PURSUIT of this thing called happiness, that is distinguished -- and even more than that, a prerequisite of action is in place, to chase this somewhat elusive quality of happiness and its full, individual, embodiment.

And really, what an enigma, right?   One person's idea of happiness can be quite different from another's...

[imagine a long pause between]

oh, pardon me...

I was just in the midst of getting lost on the BrainyQuote website, trying to hunt down the famous Henry David Thoreau quote about happiness...you know the one, "happiness is like a butterfly...yadi yadi yada...if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder."

Turns out, Thoreau may not be its author after all -- not that google portends to make that truth known.  Gotta love the fact checking.

It's a perfect example of how something takes hold, and becomes something real, even when its not even close.   Just plug in "happiness is like a butterfly" and see what happens.

The Quote Investigator website made a thorough search for proof, it would seem, aiming to get to the bottom of it.  Kudos to QI.  

The closest reference to something close to this butterfly/happiness relationship seems to have come in around 1848....and it was in a column defining a few precious things, things like love and wealth and happiness. 

AND wouldn't you know it -- the definition of wealth jumped out at me as if it came with fireworks and a sky of splendor; and I'm quoting now:  WEALTH.—The sum which gives content, whether one dollar or a million.

i just love that.

any thoughts, Thoreau, like really, any of your thoughts on this?

That man is rich whose pleasures are the cheapest.

There is no value in life 

except what you choose to place upon it 

and no happiness in any place 

except what you bring to it yourself.

The smallest seed of faith is better than the largest fruit of happiness.

It is what a man thinks of himself that really determines his fate.

The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.

mind blown again and again and again.

These are the kinds of things that should be ingrained upon every American, to its fullest extent, in mind and body.  These are the kinds of things, ideas, that can change lives, for real.

Instead, Americans are being fed all kinds of untruths and false promises and wayward appeals in the latest wave of contenders meeting up with the 2020 presidential election.

Whether it is upon the woes of climate change, medicare-for-all, or illegal immigration -- the price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it, whether we are talking one to 300 million.

all I want to do today is sit and listen to HDT hit me with his best stuff.

but alas, that isn't going to happen. 

Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.

 ...thank you, HDT, and it would seem that I have a busy one going at the moment.

so now, given that I spent way too much time tootling around brainy quotes. I need to make my way into the rest of my day of responsibilities...you know, because.... "not only must we be good, but we must also be good for something." (also Thoreau)

Make it a Good Day, G

It's in the pursuit of one thousand days Thing

Dear America,

Happiness

   

Happiness is the realisation 

of God in the heart.  

Happiness is the result 

of praise and thanksgiving, 

of faith, of acceptance; 

a quiet, tranquil realisation

 of the love of God.  

This brings to the soul 

perfect and indescribable happiness.  

God is happiness.

The Quiet Mind

White Eagle

this morning begins with a quote from the last page of The Quiet Mind.

Happy Mother's Day

Being excited about the day itself -- reaching the pinnacle of one thousand blogs -- my deliriously happy heart went to bed marinating on this very thought...and was just hoping that the morning would find me in the very same place.   And it did.

and just as the universe works, in the natural -- while in my corner, in the company of my coffee and that strapping and ever faithful eucalyptus tree of mine -- I summoned my little book of days, the clever collection of questions, Q & A a Day.  Lo and behold, the question this morning was "What are you exploring?"  to which I happened to have replied, without skipping a beat: "Happiness in all forms."

It didn't occur to me, until the moment I sat at my desk, just how much impact the Happiness quote -- the one laid to rest in my mind the night before --  had made on my psyche.  But there it was, in pretty pink ink swirled across the page...the exploration of happiness front and center, as if coming from the wisdom of the heavens.

Happiness -- that thing in which I give this very day -- means something different in all of us.

The thing is -- all I can do is wonder, just why our founders spelled it out, just so specifically, almost categorically...

"We hold these truths 

to be self-evident, 

that all men are created equal, 

that they are endowed by their Creator 

with certain unalienable Rights,

 that among these are, 

Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."

indeed --  endowed by their Creator

For it was, in fact, Nature's Law,
and Nature's God --
when in the course of human events -- 
that gave them license, the empowerment, to separate from the British Crown in the first place.

Happiness is capitalized, as if of principal importance.

And yet, as we've noted probably a thousand times before, this Happiness is neither guaranteed nor promised by way of this declaration, or by way of one's Life, or even one's Liberty -- it is the explicit fruit of one's pursuit.

The brilliance of this seems almost too impossible to put into words, really.

But, really, why did they even mention this Happiness at all?

What did they mean by it?

And given our opening quotation from White Eagle -- was this kind of Happiness echoing the same kind of Happiness as our founders, or vice versa?

With regard to this pursuit of Happiness, could the answer be so simple:  Happiness is the result of praise and thanksgiving, of faith, of acceptance; a quiet, tranquil realisation of the love of God. 

maybe...

Our founders' wisdom came from all points of Light, of Life, of History, of Civilization, of Religion, of Government.  That was the beauty of it.  America's very presence in the world came from the world itself, as if it were an act of God.  We were birthed into existence, with significance, for a reason, from men of reason and enlightenment of the ages.

Our founders recognized the dismal life, a life under the control of the Church of England, the British Crown.  And we, the people, were over it already.

So to how to phrase this mighty fight against the Brits, in a way that makes the common man want to jump in, risking life and limb and whatever liberty they were presently enjoying...and bear arms until the war was won.

Hey, guys, any of you wish to find any Happiness in Life, like, ever?  Anyone?

oh this thing called Happiness...
what a powerful force it is.

In some ways, there may be a pretty good argument on behalf of this pursuit thereof, getting the best of us these days.  am I right?  This thing called Happiness carries the power to destroy many a civilizations over the ages.  there is that.

there's even a Facebook page in its honor:  Happiness Is.


And not to be a debbie-downer, but perhaps we should all be a little more mindful when it comes to pursuing our Happiness, no?

so leading me into the end of this day, and to follow along on a theme of the last couple days, I must say that I am slowly discovering just how simple I am these days, when it comes to things that make me happy...

happiness is a hot bath with a spot of whisky on a Sunday afternoon

happiness is a jelly donut brought to me just this morning on what might as well have been a silver platter

happiness is giving back to the community, with my time, and attention, and through the amazing works of the Daughters of the American Revolution

happiness is having a beautiful relationship with both my mom and my girl, celebrating the uniqueness of our generations, personalities, and family ties, completely and unwavering

happiness is the wealth of manhood that surrounds me -- from my own father, to my man xx, to his boys -- and the sense of earthy security they give me, deep in my heart and soul; so much so, that I easily burst into tears at the very realisation of how lucky one girl can be.  like, right now.

happiness is being an American girl
happiness is writing this Day in the Life of an American Girl

but the highest of all Happiness-es is the knowing, the realisation,  from where it all comes.

This girl is a child of the Most High God, and from here all blessings and Happiness flow.

thank you, God,
and just like the last 999, this one's for YOU.

ONE THOUSAND B's to the G power.

Thank you, God
Thank you, God

this day, this Mother's Day, is in honor of our Creator, the same Creator our founders had in mind, so very long ago.  and may this kind of Happiness be with you, too.

Make it a Good Day, G