Everyday Happiness
What is happiness? I do not mean the great joy that one feels on special occasions, like when you fall in love, get married to the love of your life or have a child. I mean everyday happiness. To me these times of joy are very precious because they are everyday occurrences. Like when a loved one comes back home after a long day at work. The heart lightens up and a smile brightens up the face. You are together for the rest of the evening.
It is the sound of tiny tots babbling in conversation that only they understand and giggle in glee at their own jokes. You smile in delight as you watch them.
It is the smell of rain falling on the parched earth of summer.
It is the quiet pride you take in your children’s accomplishments.
It is the colours of a sunset as you sit watching it after day is done.
It is a spectacular full moon hanging just above you in the evening sky. You feel as if you could stretch your hand and pluck that golden orb! It makes you hold your breath in awe at the wonders that the All Mighty had gifted to us.
It is the sound of crickets in the still summer night offering their serenade when day is done.
It is the sound of the waves crashing against the shore as you lie awake in bed listening, feeling content and safe.
It is singing your baby a lullaby as you rock it to sleep.
It is feeling safe in the arms of your husband and sighing a sigh of sheer contentment.
It is the joy of a grandchild, the delight you feel at that miraculous gift!
These precious memories become part of you until the day you leave this earth. You fold them safely into your heart and your being. You cherish them. They are more dear than any valuable jewel that you may own.
I could go on and on. These are all everyday things we experience. We do not even stop and consider them as happiness. Yet as we look back at our lives, the things that stand out are these very everyday things we do or feel.
When I think of my childhood I remember playing in our garden. I remember trying to shake salt on the tail of a bird because, I believed, if I shook salt on him, he will be my friend and stay to play with me. I must have been two or three years old then. To this day I chuckle at that memory. Another fond childhood memory was brushing my father’s sparse hair endlessly, pointing it up in the air or twisting it into a large curl. My Papa said nary a word, just sat patiently as I played with his hair.
What joy it gives me to still remember how I felt seventy something years later. I loved and still love the classic music and operas that my father played in his gramophone. I remember baking a cake and making cheese toasts with Mama for the weekend family gathering or Mama and the aunties teas every Wednesday. They are all fond and happy memories.
Every person has his or her memories of what made them happy. Most of them are rather insignificant. There was nothing auspicious about them. They are just a happy memory of an everyday occurrence, yet they are all so very dear to me. Ah yes, I remember …
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