THE BUTTERFLY CALLED HAPPINESS
“Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp; but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.” Nathaniel Hawthorne M any years ago, when I first heard the statement, “Happiness cannot be a goal,” I remember asking - “Why not?” After all, happiness is what we all are longing for… striving for, right? Then, what is the difficulty in making it our goal? Frankly, ‘Happiness’ falls in the long list of ‘little things’ – just some simple, random, unplanned things in our daily lives. The list of our ‘big things’ is always short… It is complicated, concrete and planned. Little things do not call for strenuous effort… We do not have to strive for them. They are there… We just need to see them, embrace them. On the other hand, the ‘big things’… yes, the more we pursue them, the more they elude us… like the opening quote from Nathaniel Hawthorne: “Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp;...