So much in our lives conspires against our feeling happy: Our ability to see the future (“0h-no-so-and-so-might-die-and-what-will-I-do”) and our entanglement with painful memories that never seem to go away, to name just two. We live as though we’re always afraid that if we’re too happy we’ll have to pay for it (there’s not enough happiness to go around) or that suffering (the human condition) will wreak its revenge and punish us for being happy. This is a long-ago belief that suffering is good for us and happiness is sinful. Let it go. Happiness doesn’t like sitting in a dark corner of our psyche, waiting for an opportunity to occasionally slip in. It wants to be invited into our soul. It wants to be part of us. We feel happy when we become happiness. But that does take a lot of courage, because it has nothing to do with what’s going on outside.
