Sunday, December 5, 2010

Are you happy?

What is happiness anyway? What does it feel like for you? What causes it?

[Please please please don't bring 'joy' into this. I just want to know about happy.]

30 comments:

  1. Happy is especially when I've accomplished something like cooked a meal and it is loved or written something and it is published. When my kids cooperate, maybe when things go as planned? Happiness is when everyone is home and getting along together well. When the kids are all in bed and we have some couple time before we have to retire.

    It feels like everything is right in my world. It makes me feel like the possibilities are endless.

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  2. For me it's when I'm just completely in the moment. It can be anything that triggers it, something very trivial (the drawings in a panel of a comic, a harmony in a Beach Boys song, the sound of cicadas, the smell of a mowed lawn) or something with obviously more headiness, something to do with my wife or daughters or feeling suddenly secure and blessed by God.

    But in all cases it's to do with momentarily forgetting a lot of past and future worries and melancholies, and just being right there in that moment, liking something so much that I'm filled with happpiness.

    PS- Charlie Brown says that happiness 'is a warm puppy'.

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  3. I'd also say that where the 'j' word you don't want brought into this might work in a more subtle and prolonged way for me, happiness works more in short sharp bursts.

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  4. I've got that joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my heart...

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  5. down in my heart...

    And if the Devil doesn't like it he can sit on a tack.

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  6. And I'm so happy
    So very happy
    I've got the love of Jesus in my heart (down in my heart)
    And I'm so happy
    So very happy
    I've got the love of Jesus in my heart

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  7. Happiness for me is know that God is never gonna give me up, never gonna let me down, never gonna turn around and desert me. He's never gonna make me cry, never gonna say goodbye never gonna tell a lie or hurt me.

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  8. Happy is a strong word... that's how I respond when people ask...

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  9. The Beatles also sang that happiness is a warm gun. See the White Album for more info.

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  10. "The Beatles also sang that happiness is a warm gun"

    I wonder what Lennon would say about that now...

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  11. ha ha... i can remember my uncle explaining that song to me. Awkward

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  12. Ah Nathan, too true.

    One of the things that makes me happy is when people come to my birthday party. Having one's birthday fall on or just before Valentine's Day is really sucky 'cause as an adult everyone's doing things with their partner and can't possibly come to a mere birthday party.

    (Goodness me people, there are 364 other days in the year; do you really only do something nice on one day when everyone's trying to sell you over-priced goods?!)

    Another thing that makes me happy is when I've done a job to a standard which I consider 'good'.

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  13. I think Nathan is too threatened by this question and so has resorted to humour in order to deflect, deflect, deflect.

    Cmon Nath. Spill it.

    Ps, Jeff K- Happiness is a Warm Gun came about as a result of the Peanuts strip. You see, I'm always trying to get peeps to appreciate the wonder of Peanuts-- even THE BEATLES were influenced by Charlie Brown. Dig it.

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  14. @ Laetitia. Try having your birthday on Christmas day. Valentines day would be bliss.

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  15. Being funny makes me happy. I'm not necessarily happy all that often.

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  16. "I wonder what Lennon would say about that now..."

    bang bang shoot shoot.

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  17. Raymond carver says

    Happiness. It comes on
    unexpectedly. And goes beyond, really,
    any early morning talk about it.

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  18. What makes me happy?

    It used to be friday nights.

    Now? 6+ hours of unbroken sleep.

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  19. Watching our kids swim in the rain at southbank.

    After having sat by myself for 4 hours in a coffee shop.

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  20. I liked what Wendy and Ben said before the post was derailed by the "j" word...
    It seems to me from those comments that happiness seems to relate maybe more to a transient and shorter lived state brought on by external experience/event/activity or whatever. For me it's things like having just finished a good book, having the kids all get on together without arguing, and cooking something yummy. So I guess it can relate to having some sort of material possession but also to a sense of relating/feeling connected to others.

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  21. It must be all the rain you're having over there, so many wet blankets.

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  22. Happiness is a perfectly filled out form. Or anything menial done perfectly, correctly, successfully.

    Catching a perfect wave and surfing it to the beach is not happiness though. That goes to another level ... exhilaration maybe.

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  23. Also ... if the Delta Creams and Orange Slice had taken out number 1 and 2 spots ... that would have been happiness.

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