Thursday, January 6, 2011

Happiness Is...

One of my favorite songs from  Vince Guaraldi is titled "Happiness Is." I think that it is the perfect name for a song. It is happy and care free and I love listening to it. I think about that often though. How to finish the sentence Happiness is __________. Some days it is sitting by myself in a restaurant for a few hours thinking by myself at my favorite table. Some days it is listening to books in the car or reading for hours and hours. It usually involves people for the most part. I love to be around people and to make others happy. I feel that in a large, like 37.429% kind of, way that is what happiness is. 
I love to be around others. I feel that it is my forte. I love to be around other people and see how they interact with their surroundings and the other people that they are with. It is interesting to realize that the way that things are often has very little to do with the way that things are. We see reality in the way that we can comprehend it. That is unfortunately often very far from the truth. When we see things as god see them and realize that we are immortal beings having a mortal experience it seems to change things for me. Happiness is derived from the things that make God happy. The kind of happiness that God has is not the kind of happiness that needs checking in the mirror to make sure the smile is on happy, it is the confident that things are going as planned. Sometimes I feel like a person on a secret mission on a need to know basis because sometimes I get to know a lot and sometimes I never get to know anything. When I figure out what the other 62.571% of happiness is I will let you know but at least you have a good start. Being willing to mourn with someone that is mourning. I found that what President Eyring said was true. He tells of a story where President Kimball comes to visit his father in the hospital. He comes in and they exchange greeting and then President Kimball sits for several minutes without saying anything and then gets up and says good bye and leaves. President Eyring wasn't quite sure what had happened. More so after his father said that it had been the visit that he had enjoyed the most out of all the people who had come to see him.
I think that part of it has to do with the power of silence. I have felt that myself recently. Being with someone and doing nothing more than coming exchanging a few words, but nothing more. I had thought oh I could say this and she might need to hear this, but sometimes what they need to have someone there who cares for them. It is reflective of the love that the Savior has for us. He cares simply because we care. He loves us because we need it. He lets us love others so that we have an idea of His love for us. 
Okay so that number might be slightly higher. It is what everything is about. 

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