This Happiness
Why you owe the universe no explanation for being happy
Why you owe the universe no explanation for being happy
This happiness is a precious, fragile thing.
It doesn’t shine itself upon you often, but when it does, don’t push it away.
Don’t fill your head with questions like, “Do I deserve to be happy?” or “Should I be so happy when everything in the world is going so wrong?”
You do.
You deserve to be happy no matter what everyone else is going through. Happiness is not a transaction that you will maintain balance sheets to keep tabs on how many smiles you are allowed in a day.
The song of a bird on a sunny winter morning might make you happy. Or the wind playing with your hair on a moonlit evening by the lake. Happiness might come from small things. Don’t deny yourself a smile, a song, a lightness of the heart.
Yes, the world is a sad place and life is majorly fucked up.
But, moments of unadulterated happiness are rare. And you have to do absolutely nothing to deserve them.
When it comes to you, embrace it like an old friend.
And when it leaves, let it go, for it cannot stay forever.
It is fleeting. It is flighty. It is like a drop of water to a man dying of thirst in a cruel desert landscape.
This happiness — it does not come often. But when it does, let it stay for as long as it wants to.
Author’s note: If you liked this piece of work, you would definitely enjoy my best (and previously unpublished) poems which are curated in my book: Stolen Reflections: Some Stories Are Told in Verse. It is a collection of 100 poems exploring 15 different traditional poetry forms, including the haiku, tanka, limerick, palindrome and the modern free verse.