An extract from Wise Traveller: Happiness
Happiness is given. My happiest moment this week came late on Saturday afternoon when, on the edge of my seat at the football ground, I saw the ball fly into the roof of the opponents' net, for the second time in a minute, and impending defeat turned into dramatic victory. The happiness that sport can bring is often fleeting, so it's essential to savour it while it lasts.
Happiness is given. It's not earned, it's not bought, it's given to us. I didn't create the happiness I felt on Saturday. It came to me through a footballer's skill. On a deeper level, friendship, love – these things bring happiness because of the way others act and feel towards us, what they give to us.
When we're good at something, so often we call it a gift, or other people will say we're gifted. That is at the root of our happiness about our good work. Many people talk about the gift of a newborn baby; many people precede breakfast by consciously rejoicing in the gift of a new day.
If you believe happiness is given, then you can believe in the possibility of being surprised. Gifts surprise us. And if you believe happiness is given, then you can believe in the possibility that something new will come. There's always a chance that sometime, possibly when you least expect it, something new will bring a change.
The events of recent history bear this out. No one predicted that in 1989 people from East and West Berlin would be happily pulling the wall down together; no one foresaw that in the nineties South African blacks would be happily queuing to cast the first votes in their history.
Happiness is surprising; happiness is on its way – because happiness is given. So much in life can be taken as a gift, if our hearts and minds are tuned in to the giver.
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