Happiness...

Have you ever heard the words "I just want you to be happy..."  or, "As long as you're happy I support you."?

These can be amazing words to hear from someone.  They can be empowering and encouraging.  And I mean it when I say that I'm thankful for the support I've gotten from so many people.  So my hope is that the following statements won't be taken the wrong way.  :)

I'd like to pose a question...How important is your happiness?  I need to ask myself the same question..."Self, how important is my happiness?  What is it going to cost me? And is it going to end up costing someone else?"

Since when did one's own happiness become more important then something else?  Do we, as a society, use the excuse of pursuing our own happiness to get something that we want, while not remembering the happiness of others?  Do we, as human beings, really even know what makes us happy to begin with?  We understand the emotions that are associated with feeling good, but we all know those never last.  True happiness, in my humble opinion, is something so much deeper then what an emotion, or person, or material thing can ever give us.  Do I pursue happiness?  Or a feeling...

Picture a two year old sitting in a corner, playing with toys.  He goes towards something shiny that looks so great--only to have mom and dad take it away because it was a knife or something. 

OR...the child walks away from his toys because he's bored of them, and the second he sees some other kid playing with them, he freaks out because they are HIS toys...regardless of the fact that he wasn't playing with them anymore.

Are we really any different?

Thanks for reading...

John