Sabbath Messages > Sabbath Message: July 8, 2006
Good Sabbath
July 8, 2006
"Happy: pleased, glad, pleasurable, bringing good luck." So what is happiness? Is it like "war is the absence of peace", so happiness the absence of sadness?
Wisdom from the ages gives us more insights:"Men of the noblest dispositions think themselves happiest when others share their happiness with them." (Jeremy Taylor)
I like the idea that it is a moment of joy best shared with others.
"Happiness is like manna." You don't place it in a freezer and keep it for a better day. It is discovered waiting for your mood, plunging you into recognition of pleasure, suddenly, with no preparation except appreciating that it has arrived.
When one pursues happiness, philosophers tell us that it will float away, not wishing to be captured or caged. Yet, it finds you and alights upon you, like a butterfly that suddenly selects you-perhaps like an angel reading your thoughts and needs.
In pain, happiness is like the frost that makes spring's blossom more intense in beauty.
Happiness eludes those who are jealous of one whom they believe is happier than they, for that is their choice and not Fate's.
Happiness is thought by far too many, to be earned through wealth, but money does not buy happiness. Yes, a brief pleasure or possession can appear to borrow it, but like a child's toy, easily broken, with no spiritual pleasure nor longevity.
A bachelor may believe that unlimited sex is the magical elixir, but that is shallowness at its deepest. A partnership that brings pleasure to both parties, cemented by mutual trust, yes that can be what enchants two people, for I have found that it is like playing house. There is a rhythm that sets in, a comfort zone that is not boring, but really a rhythm that builds momentum--a soul mate who assists in constructing both souls--the ultimate sharing.
So what is happiness? A feeling, a condition, a mood?
Curiosity bids a scientist to study it, experiment with it, like searching the haystack for the pin. Tough, real tough. The scientist looks for statistical correlation that may seem to enumerate the reasons without any comprehension of the emotional content of seeing things which are invisible to others, and even themselves, until that moment when the "butterfly" alights, with that marvel called happiness.
Losing one's job is absolutely the cause of unhappiness, losing one's mate, one's health. The multifaceted face of happiness is myriad, fickle, and even unattainable when it is the primary goal of life.
Now, J. K. Rowling, that marvel who created Harry Potter informs some that there will be deaths in the next book. She has already frightened many mothers who know how precious Harry has been to their kins' maturation, for maturation must also contain fables or there would be no perspective on reality.
If we understand that there really is no Santa Claus (and what have we gained and lost through that conclusion), and we suddenly read that Harry Potter was lost in Hogwarts, should we be angry at the audacity of clever J. K. Rowling killing him off (because she's tired of writing about him, I guess), or blame it on Madam Fate, who determines that She will continue to be boss regardless of authors of new creative fables.
Methinks that if Harry is erased, how he dies will be the reason we are saddened or angry that we have lost another Claus enchantment, because we need them so in these days of wars and insulting behavior.
To me, happiness is the sum total of joy, resulting in personal or collective fulfillment!
Peace is fulfilling, but only appreciated after the agony of war and loss.
And me, I am most happy when my wife is fulfilled, with laughing face an giggling girlishness, and Bayne will be happy when Marjorie is adjudged cured of cancer. Our understanding and wish about losing life is that we can discover that God is a place and a fulfillment, that heaven is delivered without slaughter, thus rewarding goodness and the beauty of unselfishness.
We need to be childlike in our basic beliefs, for innocence is the spawning ground for faith and understanding of the good that is earned through sharing goodness.
sandy
