Happiness: it comes in all sorts of forms. For many of us, that might mean finally getting that good look for an Instagram-worthy selfie or being the first in line to grab a pumpkin spice latte. For others, that could mean being promoted or getting a salary raise for your employment or receiving an excellent grade on an exam you tirelessly studied for. Even just hearing a "hello" or seeing a smile can suffice. For me, happiness is a lifetime supply of Lou Malnati's and forgiveness on all my student loans. Fat chance that'll really happen, but hey, I can still dream and be happy.
We like to be happy. It gives us warm feelings and makes us forget about the world around us for a while. But even Willy Wonka's Everlasting Gobstoppers don't last forever. We have to keep replenishing our pleasures with different outlets in order to stay satisfied. There are so many routes and pursuits of happiness for us to take that it eventually becomes all we care about. But what happens when one of those outlets is taken away or one of those routes becomes blocked? We become upset. We start to panic. We begin experiencing withdrawal symptoms.
Yet there are still so many of us who solely depend on happiness to keep ourselves alive. It has become the utopian drug of our seemingly dystopian realities. There's little room for happiness when we covet other people's possessions and talents. It won't make up for all the wrongdoings that are constantly being committed against one another. When we're faced with violent torrents and sudden emergencies that come our way, smiles and squinty eyes can easily turn into grimaces and tears.
That being said, I'm not saying to immediately cease all pursuits of pleasure. Staying in the dumps for too long can be just as injurious as being too carefree. But there's something else we consistently confuse with happiness that would be more beneficial for us to cherish in the long run. It has less to do with finding more selfish pleasures and more to do with recognizing the need for selfless love and generously giving it away. We commonly refer to this attainable gift as joy.
One of the best parts about chasing joy is that you won't have to keep manually refilling it because it always overflows in everlasting abundance and it becomes more effective in situations where happiness is absent and out of reach. Others may take your happiness away, but can't nobody lay hands on your joy because it's always in stock and free for everyone, no matter the circumstance.
You will have pitfalls. You will face disasters. Those things are inevitable. But joy is more than just a feeling: it's unfading reassurance. There have been times when I thought I couldn't pass through some of the hardest barriers of my life. But when happiness couldn't save me, joy turned my moments of despair into critical points of new direction for my life. Because of joy, I am alive to tell you these things.
It's alright to experience pleasure for yourself. But don't count out joy when you've touched the most elevated star in the sky or sunk to the deepest trench in the ocean. Just to know that you're alive and breathing in any situation is all that it takes to feel the utmost satisfaction in your life. Money may seem cool. Power might feel great. But not even all worldly pleasures combined into one heavily concentrated dose can compare to the extreme potency contained in one simple act of joy. Don't be hesitant to share this gift with someone who's desperate for it.
