Hi there!
Do you ever wake up wondering, why am I here? What is the point of life? Do you wish there were no worries and that life was carefree and unremittingly happy? Do you ever wonder if we as human beings are really meant to be happy? What is happiness, why does everyone else seem to be happy when we are not? Do you have days when everything is an effort, you feel constantly tired with no motivation?
We often seem to live our lives struggling with work and with relationships. We often serve an employer getting little gratitude so we can pay the bills. In between work we try to be comfortable and use our spare time to pursue our pleasures. But as time goes by it can seem harder and harder to be “happy”.
Too often we see our peers, our friends who have devoted themselves to working hard making sacrifices and planning with the intention of a happy future, having the future taken aware by a premature demise. Then what was the purpose of their life? They were born, studied to get a good job and a comfortable living, and they died. All that work, worry and stress, what was its purpose?
Something I missed out of the previous paragraph was perhaps having children. One of the things most of us do and the one thing above all else that brings happiness without qualification. We are even happy making sacrifices for our children because watching them grow and enjoy their childhood is perhaps one of the few really true moments of happiness we can expect to enjoy. But as they grow and leave the family home what emptiness they leave behind in our lives and in our hearts.
There are many simple pleasures in life, walking in spring woodlands with the warm sun filtering through the fresh green canopy of the trees. Listening to the birds singing and the smell of spring blossoms. Walking high on the hills in the summer sun with only sky above our heads and the world seemingly far away below. Or the nostalgic beauty of a mild autumn as the trees shed their burden of gold, yellow and red leaves to form a brilliant magical carpet beneath our feet.
There is pleasure in relationships, but it seems there is true happiness in so few. To find true life long happiness in a relationship seems so rare and the fortune of far too few. Perhaps we should simply grasp every moment of happiness and cherish it for what it is. But is that selfish? All too often achieving happiness for ourselves may impact on someone else’s life so we must always tread with caution.
Perhaps pleasure is the most we should expect, with just occasional glimpses of happiness. After all we can look at nature, at the wildlife, the birds that sing so beautifully. Are they happy? I think for them happiness is not a consideration. They spend their life fleeing danger and searching for food with the one simple task of mating and procreating. Perhaps that is the point. Perhaps when all of mankind is striving, often fighting, in an attempt to achieve some sort of ideal they are missing the point. As nature seems to show us, the real point of life may simply be life itself. If we can find pleasure and occasional happiness along the way maybe that is all we should realistically expect.
I am sure there is more to life than I suggest. I would like to think I have more than a few years left and I want to enjoy them. But some mornings I wake up with more questions than answers. I think sometimes that I think too much.
Thank goodness for love, it reminds us so often that we are not alone and it brings boundless happiness.
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