It is not exactly your duty to be happy, because happiness does not come on demand. Nor is happiness exactly your purpose because happiness rather tags along. What you can do right now in this moment is to recognize that happiness is your birthright. Simple happiness, beloveds, belongs to you. Call it what you will, it is yours, and you are meant to have it. Have the idea, beloveds, that you are on vacation in life. Perhaps you have been feeling that you are on sufferance, and so you have been trudging along the streets of life when you can just as well skip and dance.
Give yourself as an offering to the Universe, and decide that you have set a course for peace and joy. Have the idea that you have set a course for the fulfillment of your desires and Mine. Have the idea that you are steering your life in a direction that blesses you and blesses the world. Have this idea in the back of your mind.
It is possible that My children have had the idea that sufferance is the lay of the land. Have a different idea. Have the idea that life is not to be put up with, but to uplift. Uplift the world, and you will be uplifted. Nourish the world, and you will be nourished. And as always, beloveds, no calculations. No counting. No adding up scores. Simple freeness of giving and accepting. Be on the lookout for the world you desire. Easily be on the lookout.
You already know what the feeling called happiness is. You have more than an inkling. And now you can have even more of a taste of this seemingly illusive happiness.
Once you have tasted licorice, and you love the taste, opportunity for more licorice will present itself. Is that not so? You will be more attuned to licorice. You will be more on the lookout for it, not as a have-to but as a light awareness of licorice as you like it. You will sense that licorice is on its way to you. Without thinking about it, you will be on the lookout for it.
This is not a venture you have to succeed in. Happiness does not require effort. You do not have to achieve it. In fact, happiness is not something that can be achieved. It can only be welcomed. Have a simple acknowledgement of your appointment with happiness and the fulfillment of all desires. You are not certain when and where you will meet, yet you are certain you will meet.
Perhaps instead of the word happiness, we can say the word freedom. Oh, to be free! Whatever the world may do, whatever confinements it may think of, you can free yourself from thoughts that bind you. You can be free to anticipate rather than turn away from. You can be free to anticipate rather than fear. You can be free to be free and to have more than what you may consider your share of happiness. Allot yourself more. Allot yourself more and more often and deeper and longer lasting. Allot yourself an allegiance to your own well-being. Represent yourself well.
When you set a course, you are halfway there. When you have set a steady course for happiness, certainly you stop at ports to pick up others. Maybe you are the boat whose course is set, and you sail along, happy to serve, happy to furrow through the waves, a happy boat picking up passengers and sailing the bounding main. You are on your way. What is there to think about? Your course has been set, and now you are all set to receive the blessings of the Universe.