Happiness

I think we misunderstood where true happiness/enjoyment occurs. True happiness leaves a bit of longing with it. When we eat one cookie, we want more and then stuff our faces full until our stomach hurts, then regret the decision. The real enjoyment comes from that first cookie, that first bite, while we still long for more.

Great happiness, by necessity, requires great longing. If we immediately fulfill every desire we ever have, there's no joy in it. It's the taste of it, in the moment while we still want more that we are most joyous. There's a certain restlessness that comes with the happiest of times.

Great joy is achieved through restraint. It's when we have that one cookie (buy that one thing, take that one trip) , thoroughly enjoy it, and are able to not eat another. It's hard. There's a pull that wants to take us past enjoyment and into overindulgence, and eventually regret. I'm not saying you can never have a cookie again, or never buy another thing, or never take another vacation. But I think that often we try to maximize our pleasure by overloading on that pleasure to the point that it's ruined.


And immediately after I wrote this I went and ate an entire box of cheesy bread from Little Ceasar's. It's a slow process. Peace.