Thursday Thoughts...

“When shall we set sail for happiness?” 

Charles Baudelaire

As part of my regular bibliomancy - reading for and about art related but not directly related kind of thing - I read Alain de Botton's The Art of Travel.

There were some marvellous descriptions, explorations, and whimsical meanderings throughout the book. Some chapters captured my attention deeply; others I skipped over. And every now and again there was a a quote.

This simple question just tugged at my heart immediately and still does so.

The idea that we have to leave where we are to find happiness is so sad. The longing in question - seeking a departure time, the opposite of the child in the back seat's refrain "are we there yet"? 

I think it's the sense of waiting, of feeling that happiness cannot be found where I am and at this moment that I find so achingly sad. As if happiness is just over there, out of reach...

It truly made me stop and consider how important it is to find the moments, and the joy, and the happiness in the here and now. To not assume it is over there, and 'if only I was there, doing that, with those people, at that place, during that time could I or would I find happiness'.

I think our job is to find happiness wherever we are, and in whatever small moments of things we can.

Our first ruby grapefruit at our new place. We planted this tree in September last year; and this winter it has gifted us two grapefruit.  Sitting in the morning sun, this made me happy.