Happiness is...

 Happiness is...many things, different things, it sometimes feel tantalisingly out of reach; often fragile and transient. It is very different from joy, happiness tends (in my opinion) to be more dependant on circumstances, people, places, and it changes over time, what made us happy as a child may not be where we find our happiness as an adult.

My happiness comes from all things stationery and book related, I am most definitely not safe to be left unsupervised in either a book shop or a stationery shop. My delight in beautiful fountain pens, gorgeous notebooks and journals, coloured pens, pencils, pencil cases, journaling ephemera, stickers and  washie tape is at best childlike!

It is an obsession I have inadvertently passed on to Ben, my son. We could stock an average sized shop between us (not that we would ever be able to sell any of our precious goodies) we both spend many happy hours colouring, writing, reading and journaling. During the first lengthy covid lockdown I began keeping a daily journal and over the course of the next two years filled three journals with daily accounts, photos, sketches, collages, stories, poems and hopes and fears. They are like old friends now, bulging in their collection of memories of an extraordinary time in our lives.

Music, dancing, nature, gardens, family, friends, food, all these can bring happiness, what makes one person happy may be of little importance to another. indeed, what makes one person happy can actually be an irritation to someone else, Ben is at his happiest while he is colouring and listening to musicals, his enthusiasm is delightful, his singing along with gusto not so much.

Happiness does not need to cost a fortune, it can be found in the little unexpected or surprising events of the day to day. The sudden glory of  a rainbow filling the sky, the appearance of an inquisitive little blue tit on our balcony, the smell of our evening meal escaping from the slow cooker, a tiny ladybird on a leaf, the incredible detail in the smallest flower, the sound of a friends voice on the phone, or a new box of crayons!

We may not be living the life we hoped for or dreamed of, we may be in the middle of circumstances which are crushing, hurting, overwhelming;  happiness may seem an unattainable, even inappropriate response but if we can just keep our eyes, ears, minds and hearts open to the little things perhaps, just perhaps we may still suddenly find the darkness lightened , momentarily.

I've decided that Ben and I are going to start a happiness journal from now to Christmas, every day we will jot down one thing from the day which made us happy, maybe on the days when we are struggling with life we can look through these and be reminded of the good things that happen even on the dark days.