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Description
Happiness doesn't come from food, drugs, entertainment,other people or any physical thing. Sure, you can enjoy them, and you'd be right to find things that make you feel good about yourself rather than feeling worthless and depressed. But that's just trying to keep the beast fed while you try to find what its weakness is, how to kill it. That thing is transient, different for every person, and yet it is always the same. Happiness isn't adoration by millions. It isn't more wealth than you could spend in a thousand lifetimes. It's not your car, your job, your wardrobe, your collection of books or music or art. It isn't even your wife or husband or daughter or son or pet. People find contentment in those things all the time, and the beast slumbers, but it stirs, it wakes up and screams bloody murder if one small thing is unsettled to shock you out of your contentment. Contentment isn't happiness in and of itself, and it doesn't kill the beast. You have to be content with less than you have to be happy, because the excess is a blessing. Happiness is mercy and grace. It's not only being spared the terrible, unmentionable, horrors that plague the lives of 'other people'. That's mercy, but its more than that. It's getting the Christmas present you were staring at in the window but didn't even dare to hope for, let alone ask for because your family could barely afford the groceries last month. It's having an elderly lady not only keeping all her shopping bags and money when a group of teens walk up to her, but having them help her across the street and stalling the bus driver who was about to take off without her. Happiness is not just being grateful you don't get the pain you feel you don't deserve. Happiness is getting so much more than you could ever dream to ask for, and knowing you don't deserve it. That it's a gift, a boon, a blessing. Happiness is unexpected, it stalks like the beast, but rather than tearing away at you, it leans up and rubs against you before winking at you, leading you away from the beast. Sometimes its path separates from yours for a while, but humbleness and preparedness will coax it back to walk ahead of you, if not alongside you once more. Sometimes it'll lead you to someone else in need and look up at you with those big dinner-plate eyes, not saying a word and still padding your gut, reminding you of your excess. Share it, ease the pain of another, and just maybe it'll call out that person's happiness to start leading them along as well. Even if that person rejects it, your own happiness will lead you on again and again. Don't look for the reward in it though, because its different for every person. Happiness isn't the beast, with a singular driving will. It's something sought but never caught, found but never restrained. It walks strange and wonderful paths, taking you places you'd never think to go, but it is out there. You just have to explore, take chances, find your contentment first, and then let it come to you. Happiness is a wild, untamed, modest but spirited. Happiness may take a vacation every now and again, but once it finds you, it never loses your scent.

Description
Happiness doesn't come from food, drugs, entertainment,other people or any physical thing. Sure, you can enjoy them, and you'd be right to find things that make you feel good about yourself rather than feeling worthless and depressed. But that's just trying to keep the beast fed while you try to find what its weakness is, how to kill it. That thing is transient, different for every person, and yet it is always the same. Happiness isn't adoration by millions. It isn't more wealth than you could spend in a thousand lifetimes. It's not your car, your job, your wardrobe, your collection of books or music or art. It isn't even your wife or husband or daughter or son or pet. People find contentment in those things all the time, and the beast slumbers, but it stirs, it wakes up and screams bloody murder if one small thing is unsettled to shock you out of your contentment. Contentment isn't happiness in and of itself, and it doesn't kill the beast. You have to be content with less than you have to be happy, because the excess is a blessing. Happiness is mercy and grace. It's not only being spared the terrible, unmentionable, horrors that plague the lives of 'other people'. That's mercy, but its more than that. It's getting the Christmas present you were staring at in the window but didn't even dare to hope for, let alone ask for because your family could barely afford the groceries last month. It's having an elderly lady not only keeping all her shopping bags and money when a group of teens walk up to her, but having them help her across the street and stalling the bus driver who was about to take off without her. Happiness is not just being grateful you don't get the pain you feel you don't deserve. Happiness is getting so much more than you could ever dream to ask for, and knowing you don't deserve it. That it's a gift, a boon, a blessing. Happiness is unexpected, it stalks like the beast, but rather than tearing away at you, it leans up and rubs against you before winking at you, leading you away from the beast. Sometimes its path separates from yours for a while, but humbleness and preparedness will coax it back to walk ahead of you, if not alongside you once more. Sometimes it'll lead you to someone else in need and look up at you with those big dinner-plate eyes, not saying a word and still padding your gut, reminding you of your excess. Share it, ease the pain of another, and just maybe it'll call out that person's happiness to start leading them along as well. Even if that person rejects it, your own happiness will lead you on again and again. Don't look for the reward in it though, because its different for every person. Happiness isn't the beast, with a singular driving will. It's something sought but never caught, found but never restrained. It walks strange and wonderful paths, taking you places you'd never think to go, but it is out there. You just have to explore, take chances, find your contentment first, and then let it come to you. Happiness is a wild, untamed, modest but spirited. Happiness may take a vacation every now and again, but once it finds you, it never loses your scent.