For years now, I’ve been focused on joy and delight.
I’m not focused on happiness. Why?
The root word for “happy,” which comes from the old Norse word “hap.”
Hap means “luck or chance.”
Think about that. The root word of happiness means the randomness of good luck or chance. It’s also the same root word for happenstance.
This is what we are reaching for in America — good luck, which allows us to feel good, if someone or something happens to make us feel we are chosen with good fortune.
Not only that, but what is written in the Declaration of Independence is that we have the right to “...pursue happiness.”
We don’t have the right to homes, food, and work that suits us. We have the right to pursue.
We have the right to strive and try to be in the “right” place that will give us the luck to be discovered by someone else. Or win the lottery. Or hope that all our striving will finally allow us to rest.
This is a horrible way to live.
Look all around you. You’ll see it everywhere.
And it isn’t working.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Our Kind Kitchen to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.