Happiness is...

The older I grow, the more apparent this profound truth becomes: The source of my genuine happiness is the happiness of others. This is utterly consistent with my understanding of the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, and, for that matter, with all of the faith traditions known to humankind. It is the ethic of mutual reciprocity. It is the Golden Rule. It is the Kingdom come on Earth as it is in Heaven. It is the kind of authentic happiness I experienced when Rachel received her good news (go to Anxiety to read it for yourself). The “fun” things I may do to try to achieve personal happiness are never as successful as sharing someone else’s happiness. From the Beatitudes one may conclude that Jesus saw nothing wrong with happiness—indeed, he encouraged it. For two-thousand years and counting we have not comprehended his straightforward direction to happiness. Let us pray that it will not be another two or three millennia before we finally understand how to make ourselves happy.