{"id":1468,"date":"2017-01-23T08:00:23","date_gmt":"2017-01-23T13:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/?p=1468"},"modified":"2017-01-23T10:05:39","modified_gmt":"2017-01-23T15:05:39","slug":"happiness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/happiness\/","title":{"rendered":"Don’t Look for Happiness"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I looked for my yellow scarf I found my old pearl necklace. I searched high and low looking for a flashlight, thinking, it\u2019s gotta be here somewhere, but it didn\u2019t show up until two days later, after I\u2019d forgotten about it and was on a hunt for double-AA batteries.
\nThis is how it is with joy; if you go seeking it, most likely you will find something else.<\/p>\n

For the last five years I\u2019ve been telling people, \u201clook for joy\u201d and \u201cI\u2019m looking for joy.\u201d But chasing after joy is so \u2013 graceless. It\u2019s an embarrassingly poor use of one\u2019s time. Even though the Pursuit of Happiness is one of those unalienable rights granted in our country\u2019s Declaration of Independence, right after Life and Liberty, it seems like a shallow and self-indulgent thing to be pursuing.<\/p>\n

So now I\u2019m changing my song: don\u2019t look for joy.<\/p>\n

Joy is a follower. It tags along behind, or is the result of something else. It doesn\u2019t simply sit somewhere waiting to get plucked up like a daisy. Don\u2019t bother searching for joy. Instead, be ready for it. Be open to it. Adopt the attitude that happiness can be a heartbeat away even when you\u2019re drowning in grief and misery.<\/p>\n

Joy is too elusive a thing to try to capture for oneself. It\u2019s easier to make joy happen for someone else. Look for opportunities to create it. It lives deep inside you, waiting to be shared. You may not be able to bask in it yourself at that moment, but you can still grow it and give it away.<\/p>\n

The really neat thing is when you bring joy to another it boomerangs back to you. You end up feeling good, maybe even looking good. And then friends stop bugging you about how you should \u201cgo see someone\u201d and \u201cget anti-depressants.\u201d<\/p>\n

I know how it is to deliver joy. Even in all my sadness, after I do something to make someone else feel happy, it\u2019s kind of like I\u2019m standing tall on a hilltop in a gentle wind, wrapped in a warm pink blanket, watching all the lost yellow scarves and pearls floating down to me from under a rising sun.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Many thanks to my dauntless friend Annette who posed, trying to be joyful when she was really hungry and in pain, before I completely exhausted her.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I looked for my yellow scarf I found my old pearl necklace. I searched high and low looking for a flashlight, thinking, it’s gotta be here somewhere, but it didn’t show up until two days later, after I’d forgotten about it and was on a hunt for double-AA batteries. This is how it is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1062],"tags":[1083,1084,406,1085,1082],"class_list":["post-1468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1062","tag-dont-look-for-happiness-create-it","tag-joy-is-elusive","tag-looking-for-joy","tag-make-joy-happen","tag-pursuit-of-happiness"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t