Happiness...

Before and since booking my big adventure, I have done a lot of thinking about happiness.  I wonder how to find it and how to keep it in my life.  I used to think that happiness was meeting that other person, your partner in life, and sharing your life together.  But if that never happens for me, if I never meet the proverbial “man of my dreams,” will I never be completely happy?  I hate to think that and in fact, don’t believe that’s actually the case. 

One of my good friends and I had a discussion not too long ago about her happiness.  She said she adores her husband and loves him more than anything, however, if something happened to him, she would move on and still find happiness in life.  I was shocked!  How could that be?  I thought she was blissfully happy being married.  How could she imagine a happy life without him?  The answer is of course she IS blissfully happy and could still be blissfully happy without him.  Marriage is not the key to happiness although it can contribute. 

It still begs the question – how do you find and keep happiness?  I am reading a book called The Geography of Bliss.  The writer travels the world searching for the reason why the so called happiest nations are happy.  So far I have read his adventures in Holland, Switzerland and Bhutan.  I am still no further to answering my question nor is the author. 

Maybe happiness is having lower expectation in life, you know, the whole “ignorance is bliss” attitude.  If you wish or want for less, maybe you are happier with what you have.  The same aforementioned friend cautioned me on hanging too many hopes and expectations of finding inspiration on this trip I am about to undertake.  She’s totally right – I need to manage my expectations of this trip. 

This is definitely going to take more thought…