“Happiness runs in a circular motion. . . “ Donovan
The pursuit of happiness is guaranteed in the Constitution of the United States of America. The pursuit of happiness, not the accomplishment of it. And that is how many of us spend our time: pursuing happiness, but never actually feeling that we have achieved it or accomplished it.
When Annie Sprinkle taught her Sacred Sex: Goddesses and Sluts workshops at the Wise Woman Center, she shared many ways to increase happiness. Some involved Tantric breathing and some involved chocolate, but my favorite, and one which I continue to do to this day is this a simple, clear assignment: Make a list of ten things that make you happy and do at least one of them every day.
My list included simple things like petting warm furry animals. (My cats, my rabbits, and my goats.) Being outside. (Walking outside even better.) Reading aloud. (Best is to my granddaughter.) Going barefoot. Reading (silently) to myself by candlelight. Singing.
And my list included more complicated, more goal-oriented things, like creating a Wellness Adventure in Costa Rica and getting eight women to come. (Done.) And building a new, maintenance-free deck and patio at the Wise Woman Center. (Also done.) And digging a one-acre pond instead of enduring a mosquito-infested swamp. (Also done.) And, of course, earning the money to do these things.
Yes, happiness can (needs to) be found in the smallest day-to-day details. But there is also a vast well of happiness to be had from envisioning – and then manifesting –something grand, elegant, and vast. This kind of happiness is not the work of a moment; it requires foresight, vision, and persistence.
And it is a deeply material kind of happiness. I am happy every time I sit by my pond, every time I enjoy a meal on my new deck/patio, and as I sit here in Costa Rica with nine women enjoying pura vida.
Material? Yes, happiness not a dream. It is a manifestation, it is part of the material world and is to be manifested. Happiness that endures is not just in my mind but in my body. When I reach out to pet the cat, when I put my bare feet on the ground, when I sing,I manifest happiness.
Popular lore holds that happiness cannot be bought. Yet it seems that it can. Everywhere we look, people spend money in order to be happy.
Perhaps there is a distinction between a momentary happiness – a wonderful meal, a trip somewhere, a ticket to a special performance, a new computer – which I can buy, and happiness which is enduring, which is perhaps not for sale.
Yet, I have had meals so memorable that, decades afterwards, it never fails to give me great happiness when I think of them. And every trip I have made has yielded a trove of experiences which made me happy then and happy now, long after I have returned home.
I believe satisfaction is the secret ingredient in happiness. When I am satisfied, the happiness keeps flowing. Satisfied happiness persists through the difficulties of life. It underlays our grief, it motivates our rage.
Although I literally wept when the earth-moving machine tore up the swamp, even though I cringed when the turtles and frogs and snakes had to flee, and despite the fact that I was aghast at the bare earth, shorn of all its plants, and the trees pushed down and buried, I was happy. I was satisfied.
The turtles have returned, as have the snakes and frogs. And a mink lives by the new pond and a great blue heron comes to fish there. Yesterday I saw a kingfisher on the utility wire that passes over the pond on the way to my house. Bluebirds nest in the dead trees we left at the edges. The earth is covered with a woven miracle of green and growing plants, some of which are new to my land. Conspicuously missing are the previous owners: clouds of mosquitos.
I am happy. I am satisfied.
I am happy to be a human, happy to be a woman, happy to be a grandmother, happy and satisfied.
More makes me happy too.
So I keep dreaming, keep envisioning: A teaching trip to Australia (happening next year), a return to Findhorn (in a year or two), another book or two (I actually promised to write ten and have only done five so far), the return of herbal medicine to the home and the heart of the common person (herbal medicine is people’s medicine), and the im-power-ment of women worldwide (slowly but surely).
I happily pursue the next happiness, with great joy and delight for the happiness I already have.
What makes you happy? Make a list. Follow your happiness.
“You can have it all, if you let yourself be.” – Donovan
