Searching for Happiness

I recently discovered something new and interesting to me in an article on happiness: you can spend your life searching for happiness and never find it.  That’s because happiness is not a journey; it’s a destination.  Happiness is something you make yourself.  You only have to become happy in order to achieve it.  The journey is a distraction.

Life is often described as a journey.  Here it’s a good metaphor.  In the case of life, it is the journey that’s important.  The destination is always the same.  We’d better enjoy the journey, or make use of it to benefit other people, because we won’t enjoy the destination.

This revelation on happiness reminded me of a book I bought a few years ago.  I found it in the bargain section of a local book store.  The title was Happiness.  It was written by Jean Vanier, the founder of L’Arche movement.  This all sounded good, but I was disappointed as I read it.  The book was based on Aristotle’s concepts of happiness, something that didn’t appeal to me at all.  Perhaps it could validate what you’ve learned once you’ve already achieved happiness.