WHAT IS HAPPINESS?

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20152, 12 January 1929, Page 6 (Supplement)

WHAT IS HAPPINESS?

ITS IMPORTANCE TO LIFE. BY EDNA GHAII.UI MACKY. " A Happy New Year! " wc say lo each other •with a laudable attempt at sincerity. "May Happiness be yours!" wc toast our friends, flattering ourseKcs that we have put the proper tone of enthusiasm into our voices. Tlio word " happiness " strikes a frequent note in our ordinary speech these days, and falls pleasantly upon our cars like the tinkle of a sweet bell. Yet I wonder if any of us realises the significance of this expression which ivc havo bandied about so freely of late. "What is happiness?" I asked of several acquaintances whom 1 met, and their answers were inevitably tinged with pesbimism. " Happiness is the pot of gold at Hie end of this rainbow," said one. 'J he will o' the/'wisp that flits across the 'Marsh of Existence," said another. '"Hie bright, blue bird that perches on the topmost branch of the tree of life," rereplied a third, and so on, through a list of definitions equally poetical, equally disheartening. Nevertheless, wc all feel in our inmost being that thero is such a thing as real happiness, for have we not seen evidences of it upon the faces of some people whom we know, children, for instance, and young lovers and old. smiling folk who havo found peace ? But lo actually define happiness i» another thing. Everybody seems to have a different notion about it. A South African native would not likely see eye to eyq with an English professor in the matter, yet both be perfectly sincere, perfectly reasonable in their opinions. Happiness is individual, elusive, transient. As far as I can sec, happiness is the appreciation and enjoyment of beauty, and liko beauty, it is necessarily fleeting. The loveliest things of earth delight us only for a little time and then fade away, youth, summer flowers, a sunset sky, the song of a bird. Indeed, nothing is permanent, so why expect happiness to bo? This very transiency, this instability of loveliness has ever calied forth a passionate protest from the lovers of earth—poets, artists/ composers, who have sought with their inagic to pour the soul of beauty and happiness into lasting moulds. Art is a solaco to the craving heart, hut all real happiness comes from the simple things, from the living beautiful things that nature has in store. The happiness that Nature supplies is perishable, like ripe fruit waiting to bo picked. We must take and eat when the opportunity offers, otherwise our prize will fall to the ground and rot. On the other hand we must not be too eager to pluck the tempting fruit, Jest it be green and liable lo do us more harm than good. Happiness cannot be rushed, cannot be neglected, but must be enjoyed at the opportune moment, when we are"ready for it and it is ready for us. Again, I should say that happiness is elusive, fragile and shy, like a delicate bird longing to eat out of your hand, vet afraid to trust itself entirely to your care. If you are kind and gentle, if you know the secret of understanding, tho little bird of happiness may bo often coaxed upon your linger, and will deign to sing to you from some low branch convenient to your ear. Never frighten him witn rough or sudden gestures; or ho will fly away from you forever. Never try to cage him to possess him selfishly, for lie will surely pine and die and you Mill havo nothing but his dead form left in your keeping. Happiness is a gift, not a right. Something to bo won and deserved, not demanded or coerced. If wo would enjoy happiness, we must learn to hold it lightly, give it freedom to como and go. Delight in it while it is with us, but never seek to delay ils flight. When we have learned this we have truly found the secret of Jiving, learned the hardest and most difficult lesson that life has to teach. Happiness is a bird, a blue bird, unfettered, uncaged, but which may be tamed to como to our hand for a brief resting, if we are patient, if wo are gentle, if we attract.