"Eventually, we reach the point where we start to realize that we are not going to find peace, contentment, happiness, strength, fearlessness - all of the things that in our heart of hearts we wish we had - outside of us."-- Guy Finley

I think this quote nicely sums up what I've learned about happiness. I'm done with this topic for now, and moving onto another subject that I'll be exploring in September.  Stay tuned!

"Happiness is being on the beam with life - to feel the pull of life."-- Agnes Martin

Doesn't that just say it all?  To feel yourself floating on the river of life--totally going with the flow, not knowing, or caring, what's around the next bend and so immersed in the loveliness of the journey, so caught up in the direction the current is taking you and so in-the-moment that the only thing that matters is the ever-illusive NOW--that, to me, is the essence of happiness.

"Happiness: a way station between too little and too much." --Channing Pollock

This quote reminds me of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  Her search was always for that thing that was "just right", which brings us back to the notion of contentment being a big component of happiness; when the stars are in the heavens and all is right with the world.
It's important to remember, though, that your search for contentment must factor in the needs of others. Nothing can harsh your buzz more than waking up to the three bears.

"The first person who ever told me that happiness was work was this manic-depressive artist I knew when I was in my 20s. I was like, 'What are you talking about? Happiness just happens. That's even the root of that word. How could it be work?'"-- Ariel Gore

Enough Said.

"They must often change, who would be constant in happiness or wisdom."-- Confucius

Happiness is a moving target.
As you change, as your life changes, so too do your ideas about what it takes to make you happy.
As children, we swam in our happiness like fish in water.  We knew of nothing else, but thought our happiness would increase if we could just have that toy or be friends with that kid down the block.
As we grow, we see that happiness is a choice-- not in companions or material goods but in our own state of mind.
As adults, we no longer assume happiness. Long ago we lept out of the fishbowl.
I guess we evolved.  We developed strategies that keep us breathing the oxygen of adult life, but we yearn to swim again, to have the passion, emotional freedom, and excitement we once had as children.
On the bright side, change is inevitable.  We can learn to be amphibious: breathing and blending the heady air of our intellectual nature with the deep water of our emotional body with ease and mastery.

"Happiness isn't something you experience; it's something you remember." Oscar Levant

First I found the quote above and then I found this:
"Nothing prevents happiness like the memory of happiness."--
Andre Gide
For obvious reasons, I had to include both in today's post.
Here's the flaw I see from both Andre and Oscar: their definition of happiness seems to require a certain event that you look back upon with longing.  
There is such a thing as unreasonable happiness, that which just springs from the day, as unquantifiable, unknowable, and completely ephemeral as every true emotion seems to be.  
You just feel. . .happy.  
It's definitely an "experience" (take THAT Oscar!) and (En Guard, Andre) it's not "a memory" of something in the past.
It just is, and it feels wonderful.

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien

The truth of this makes anything I have to add incidental.  Enjoy your sunday!