The paradox of happiness
Tuesday, October 13, 2009 at 6:38AM A shared link in Google Reader from Jackie Danicki yesterday morning led me to the wonderful Happiness Project blog from Gretchen Rubin. I had great fun surfing around the content in the blog and ended up watching Gretchen's movie The Days Are Long But The Years Are Short. Go off and have a look, it's only short, and then come back.
Having watched the movie I then took my youngest daughter to school and walked along side her as she rode on her scooter, down past the church in Great Missenden, through wonderful autumnal woods, stunning in the clear, cold sunlight. With Gretchen's words very much in mind I found myself welling up several times as I took in what was happening around me and considered the preciousness of the little bundle of joyful energy at my side.
Why welling up? Why the unbearable sadness following on from the intense joy? These moments are so fleeting. Moments of appreciation and being present give way all to soon to the normal dream like trance of busy-ness. And all to soon the moments pass, the years pass, and it's too late. We missed it.
Reader Comments (6)
I know exactly what you mean and I experience the same thing. I'm back in Hanoi - a place more capable of bringing out extreme emotions in me than just about any person.
I ride my bike down these tree lined streets while the chaos goes on around me and I just feel incredibly lucky and privileged to be here. A feeling that whatever I have done wrong in my life I must have done something very right to get this as payback.
It frequently wells up in me. The life of an expat can be extreme in terms of emotions - the highs are higher and the lows can be very low. But that's living. I wouldn't swap it for any thing.
Lovely post, Euan. I remember vividly catching my first glimpse of understanding about transience. We were reading Tam O'Shanter in class in school and this hit me:
"But pleasures are like poppies spread,
You sieze the flower, its bloom is shed;
Or like the snow falls in the river,
A moment white--then melts for ever;"
And then of course "Nae man can tether time nor tide". I understood that then with my head. At the age of 53, I now appreciate that completely. One good consequence of this is gradually losing any fear of failure or of what anyone might think of me.
Regarding those intense moments of being present, I try to practice that as much as possible. Don't do it enough, though :-) . Thanks for the reminder.
Lovely stuff Euan. Going v Being. All very zen :-)
Euan, your post inspires me.
In sweden we have a proverb that say "joy and sadness walk hand in hand".
Makes more sense to me each year.
Hi Euan- I saw the nice mention of my blog, The Happiness Project, here. I very much appreciate you shining a spotlight on my blog! Thanks and best wishes, Gretchen Rubin
Hey Gretchen - nice to "meet" you. Thanks for dropping by.