How many times have I heard statements like the three below, and nodded my head, and thought, “But, of course.”

My happiness is dependent upon nothing but myself.

My happiness is up to me.

Happiness is within me.

Just now (the day I’m writing this) I experienced it. I did it — kinda! I made it happen — sort of.

I wasn’t thinking about happiness at all. I was just going out to the patio to drink some pineapple I had mixed into a creamy ambrosia in the blender. The thought came to me:

I can be happy.

Then I looked at the ocean, the waves, the palm trees, the horizon, and the thought came:

“How can I not be happy!”

And then I was aware of my happiness.

My happiness wasn’t dependent upon the pineapple, not even the ocean, the waves, the palm trees, the sound of the ocean, the sound of a guinea hen-like bird squawking, the sun, the breeze. My happiness was dependent upon nothing but my noticing it.

There was a swell in my heart, and I left the patio and the beautiful view, came to my computer, and started writing and brought my happiness along with me.

There was a time in my life when my thought might well have been:

Can anyone find happiness?

Under certain circumstance where I would have found it difficult to be happy, I saw people who were happy  where I couldn’t be. Actually, when I think of it, I have seen this often.

When I was in India, for example, I saw people in poverty, and they were happy. I particularly remember a young couple who were pushing a wooden hand cart down the heavily-trafficked fume-laden street. I assumed that their cart held all they owned. This young man and woman’s eyes were bright when they looked at each other. As they pushed their cart down the street, they were holding hands. It appeared that, as far as they were concerned, they were pushing a golden cart, and their cart was as good as any Cadillac. And, I imagined that, had this couple had no cart and no possessions, they would still be holding hands and looking into each other’s eyes and knowing happiness.

And, if this couple did not have their beloved to hold hands with, I imagined that each would have happiness just the same.

And now I will stop writing and take my pineapple cream back to the patio and continue happiness.