Life is a highway…going where?

“Car ride” is probably one of my most favorite people phrases. Never have there been two words more synonymous with adventure. While I do tend to enjoy exciting destinations like the dog park or grandma’s house, the journey is just as exciting. I think its the mystery I find in not knowing where we’ll end up.

Are we turning left or right? Are we staying on the straight and narrow? Who knows? Thinking about this, I couldn’t help but wonder, is it the questions (not the answers) that make the journey as exciting as the destination? As a lover of words, I suppose its no surprise that I am bursting at the seems with questions. I know a lot of them are nonsense, but I can’t picture life’s journey without them…questions push me, challenge me, make me think.

Understanding that car rides make me happy because of the adventure and adventure stirs up questions, I stumbled across a curious answer to one of life’s most serious questions: what is happiness to me?

Because of my time with Simple Abundance, I’ve been more aware of what it means to be happy (the answer), but perhaps that isn’t as important as the pursuit of happiness itself (the questions). Pursuit is no ordinary word. It requires one to first make a choice to engage, but more importantly to actively remain engaged in obtaining whatever the end result is.

“Happiness is a living emotion,” Breathnach tells us today. And since I’ve been in the habit of noticing happy things, I’ve noticed two different references to happiness on the walls of my forever home. Ironically, they both involve action on the part of the beholder.

French novelist and memoirist George Sand once wrote of only one happiness in life: “to love and be loved.”

Ultimately putting those words to action is Mahatma Ghandi who challenged that “happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in perfect harmony.”

The dog park and grandma’s house make me happy, but so does the ride to get there. Happiness is not a destination. Its so much more. Its recognizing moments that make up the journey that piece lifelong happiness together.

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