And life flows on within you and without you

I have blogged too many times about happiness, as clicking here will reveal.  I am practically obsessed with happiness--despite the General Malaise that I am! 

As I wrote here, I suppose I often return to this theme only because I think people do not think through this as they go through the process of college degrees and careers and incomes and travel and everything else.

An unhappy and stressful time--thankfully, it was brief--during the pandemic when the layoff loomed large convinced me forever that life without happiness can be unbearable.  I want to lead a happy life however short or long that might be.  

I have been in pursuit of happiness my whole life, it seems to me.  Ditching a career in engineering was the beginning step in getting away from a life of unhappiness that I was headed towards.  A career that would have delivered plenty of money but with a whole lot of unhappiness.  I intuitively understood that no amount of money would buy me happiness.

More of power, prestige, and whatever else that we work for is no path towards happiness either.  Happiness is internal that is not based on something externally observable.  In this happy life, I am less concerned about stuff and more interested in making memories.  I remain convinced that memories is all that we take with us during that final journey.  Stuff doesn't make one happy.

Alas, we live in a world in which happiness is all about the external.  People buy stuff, go places, and document all these in order to demonstrate that they are happy.  Gazillions are made by those promising such fake happiness!

Nothing that I have written thus far will be new to any thinking person.  After all, cultures across the world have clearly conveyed over the centuries everything that one would need to know about happiness.  Yet, we all need reminders as we lead our daily lives that often bring about discomfort and depression.

A few days ago, my sister had plenty of updates about the extended family but not one was cheerful.  She was about to hand over the phone to my father when I told her that she can't end the chat with nothing but bad news.  "Surely there is at least one good news," I said.

"You tell me."  She laughed.

"Ok, here is one.  We are all alive and well and talking like this."

"Yes, that is good news."

The older I get, the more I am convinced that one cannot pursue happiness even if I commented earlier that I have been in pursuit of happiness my entire life.  Happiness, I have concluded, comes from within.  The pursuit is within by trying to understand what makes us truly happy and content.

How is your internal pursuit of happiness going?

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