Monday 14th April

I have often pondered happiness; what is it exactly?  And why is this state so desired and yet so transitory.  And often hard to recognize at the time; easy on reflection or in anticipation but at the time that it is happening happiness can be elusive, hard to define, almost ephemeral.  As soon as you ask yourself if you are happy, then the moment of non-thinking enjoyment slips away.  So maybe the secret is not to think at all, but to just enjoy thoughtlessly, unquestioning and unreasoning, no analysis, no judgement, in fact no thoughts at all.  Just be.

This afternoon we went for a simple walk with the dogs, an untried route and ended up down by the river Dropt, a tiny wending footpath that actually led nowhere, but so calm so undisturbed so peaceful.  The sun was shining, birds in the trees, a cockerel the other side of the river crowed, the dogs were off their leads and happily following the path with us.  Sheer happiness.  So hard to define, so easy to lose, but actually so easy too.  Why do humans make everything so complicated, so stressful, so hard.  Then we ended up at Café de Paris and a cold Hoegarten sans citron.   Perfection.  Bliss almost.  Definitely approaching happiness I would say.