HAPPINESS is what he loves most.
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| Included in this picture are ~ ties, bowties, hats & waistcoats, drawing, Radiohead (the band) , First Aid kit (the band), colour, Piano, friends, Star Wars, Pokemon. |
I love so very much how happiness looks like to him.
I think about happiness a lot.
I worry about it too.
What I worry about is that the happiness most people may be looking for is indeed a new invention.
The invention that happiness comes from things and not from more simple everyday events.
It has become yet another thing we must strive towards without really knowing what it even is or how we 'get' it.
Maybe happiness is a shiny new car.
Or maybe it is owning a home of our own.
Is it a new pair of shoes?
These types of things maybe make us feel good for a bit but I don't think they are happiness.
I think Happiness is something that comes from intangible things.
The feeling of the hot sand scalding our feet just before we get to run into the ocean on a hot day.
The feeling we get when we laugh so hard there is no more sound & our belly hurts.
The pride we feel when we gain the courage to do something hard.
The feeling we get when we see the sun rise and hear the first birds call.
The sound of children laughing.
Biting into the very first Peach of the season.
Listening to a song that stops us in our tracks.
If we concentrate really hard on slowing down enough to notice these essential and SMALL things in our lives, I think we will also notice that these are the things that truly give us pleasure.
By noticing them more I think we would all have a great chance of finding real happiness.
My 10yo's poster was such a great reminder that children really know what things count.
Children TEACH us every single day.
I LOVE so very much that he wrote these things down.
If you wrote a poster about what you love & about happiness- what would it look like?
What ever it is, how ever it comes, you know it when it does. There is no 'virtual' happiness, plenty of 'this should make me happy but...' All I know is when you are happy you are happy and when something makes you feel 'happy' you are. That's why we should stop looking for it and just be it. Kids get it.
ReplyDeleteyes yes YES!
ReplyDeleteI love what Oscar loves about happiness! I think I'm going to get my kids to draw a happiness poster too! what a wonderful experience. And I agree wholeheartedly with your idea of happiness too...having had a huge life change these past few months the very essence of happiness for us has been at the forefront! happiness is so very important.
ReplyDeleteWhen I suffered depression in the past I wrote a list called "Things that make me smile". I haven't looked at that list in a loooong time (which I'm grateful for, as I've not suffered depression like that since) but I can remember the first thing on the list- the chortling of a Magpie. There's nothing quite like it to ground you & make you realise how something so simply can be so calming :) I do wonder what my 6 year old would put on her list tho......
ReplyDeleteI've learnt the long way that *real* happiness is the happiness you get *before* you buy/do things to make you happy. It is a self reliant/self supporting happiness. I looked for it for years only to find that it had been near me the whole bloody time. Better late than never :)
ReplyDeletekids are SOOOOOO good at just knowing what is good.
ReplyDeleteI wonder when it is we lose sight of that.
I am so happy you have found your happiness again though.
And you are pretty darn good at making it for others too ;)
i love that sound too.
ReplyDeletewe were marvelling at a mumma magpie & her baby only yesterday morning as they chortled outside our bedroom window
I wonder what your kids will write! how great.
ReplyDeleteFish and chips on the beach, my dog running after a ball, vegemite soldiers and a perfect soft boiled egg, fresh crispy sheets flapping on the line (like today!),
ReplyDeleteSo true kids are so good at knowing what makes them Happy and we should too!
ReplyDelete