Blog 2362 – 04.12.2022

The Pursuit Of Happiness

The wise writers of the revised United States Constitution wrote “Man is endowed by his creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” For just over seven years now I have been putting out this encouraging word blog. I am happy to do so as I hope to share some of the happiness that I have found in my lifelong pursuit with as many others as I possibly can.

What makes you happy? Is it getting want you want? Sometimes it is l letting go of the things that we do not really want or need any longer in our lives. I have long believed that figuring out what we want is over fifty per cent of getting what we want in life which comes easily to us if we refrain from continuously putting out competing or conflicting requests that have a way of short circuiting the process.

If we could but realized that everything we could ever want or need is already ours, we could greatly reduce the delivery times on our sweetest dreams. Happiness is less a pursuit and more a counting our blessings exercise. I am reminded of a line from one of my favorite bedtime songs. It goes, “When I’m tired and I can’t sleep, I count my blessings, instead of sheep, and I fall asleep, counting my blessings.”

The first time I was ever “put to sleep” for surgery at age fourteen to have my tonsils removed, I recalled the anesthesiologist told me to count backwards from a hundred. I did not make it to ninety-five before I was deeply and soundly asleep.

After our basic wants and needs are met: air, water, exercise, food, and sleep there are a host of other things we pursue in our quest for happiness. Yesterday, I wrote “Don’t hurry be happy.” It was a play on a more familiar piece of good advice, “Don’t worry be happy.”

Worrying will keep you awake at night. Worrying is thinking about what you don’t want: a silly, stressful, and tiresome activity. Think instead of every good and perfect gift you already possess and all the others on the way. And think about letting go of some of the unnecessary baggage that is wearing you out just lugging it around.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bWBw3vc0w8q3e5I5mmXTlH0X3a-bZh49/view?usp=drivesdk

Don’t Worry Be Happy