What, right now, right this minute, could make you happy for all time?
Quickly, you try to think. You think of this and that. You want to be happy, and you don’t actually know what would give your great happiness. If this is only one wish you can make, you would never want to waste it.
Happiness is elusive to you. You can’t hold it in your hand. As much as you might desire a new car, you know a new car is not your great fulfillment. Yet you are not at all sure what would be.
A true love perhaps? You have had one or two or more, and true love didn’t keep its promises.
A true mission would be good, yet, you ask yourselves sincerely, what would be enough to satisfy you?
You think the right answer must be God, yet you have no confidence in that answer either. You have had moments of remarkable closeness to God, yet where is it now? Where is that joy? It seemed to vanish. Suddenly, it wasn’t there any longer. You don’t know where it went.
A day at the beach is nice. Winning the lottery must be nice, yet when will that happen, and how long will that initial joy last until you come back down to where you started.
Right now you don’t know anything that will last. It must be God Who will be eternal fulfillment, yet God feels far away at this moment.
If this is the way you are feeling right now, then take happiness from the so-called little things, and they will add up. Maybe you like the way someone walks. Enjoy it. Someone’s face. The coffee in your cup. The coffee smells good too. Someone’s voice gives you some happiness. An email. There is an endless list.
Get in the habit of enjoying the little things right now and no longer wait for all this great happiness you have been waiting for. Enjoy all that which comes to you now. Enjoy it for no reason but that it is precious to you.
Someone’s laugh resonates. Perhaps even someone’s tears light your heart.
Let being alive on this very Earth in the very form you are in, let that be your happiness. Let the green leaves outside your window beyond which is a sky be your great happiness. Whether the sky is blue or gray, whether the sun shines brightly or is clouded, soak it in as your happiness. Who else are these miracles for if not for you, for Heaven’s sakes!
These little moments in life are given to you. They are your special moments.
Even if there is a spill on the kitchen floor, enjoy wiping it up. Enjoy first, and then all else will open up to you.
In daily life, there may be no great culmination before you. With or without a great crescendo, life is served to you as one might serve you a dish of candy. It is for you. Take the candies you like. Accept all as a gift to you. Every day that you step out or stay in, there are presents delivered to you. They are for you right now, not later. Enjoy the pleasures that are before you right now. Avail yourself of them.
No longer say to yourself: “But I wanted something bigger. I wanted that, not this. I wanted something overwhelming.”
Be overwhelmed then with the little things and call them Treasure. Relish every one of them. Welcome the rain. Welcome the sun. Welcome the winds that blow. Welcome the leaves underfoot. Be gracious to everything that comes before you. Relish all, for this is life that you are in midst of, and life is coming to you every moment. Pick it up in your arms and give it a hearty welcome.
Everything in life is here to serve you. Now, serve yourself your own happiness.