[00:01.40]Be Happy!
[00:05.44]"The days that make us happy make us wise."—John Masefield
[00:12.33]When I first read this line by England's Poet Laureate, it startled me.
[00:17.47]What did Masefield mean? Without thinking about it much,
[00:21.73] I had always assumed that the opposite was true.
[00:24.47]But his sober assurance was arresting.
[00:27.12] I could not forget it. Finally,
[00:29.41]I seemed to grasp his meaning and realized that
[00:32.48]here was a profound observation.
[00:35.32] The wisdom that happiness makes possible lies in clear perception,
[00:39.36] not fogged by anxiety nor dimmed by despair and boredom,
[00:43.74] and without the blind spots caused by fear.
[00:46.48]Active happiness—not mere satisfaction or contentment—often comes suddenly,
[00:52.06]like an April shower or the unfolding of a bud.
[00:55.11] Then you discover what kind of wisdom has accompanied it.
[00:58.61] The grass is greener; bird songs are sweeter;
[01:02.23]the shortcomings of your friends are more understandable and more forgivable.
[01:06.60] Happiness is like a pair of eyeglasses correcting your spiritual vision.
[01:11.41]Nor are the insights of happiness limited to what is near around you.
[01:16.23] Unhappy, with your thoughts turned in upon your emotional woes,
[01:20.38] your vision is cut short as though by a wall.
[01:23.45]Happy, the wall crumbles.
[01:25.96]The long vista is there for the seeing.
[01:29.02]The ground at your feet, the world about you—people,
[01:32.52]thoughts, emotions, pressures—are now fitted into the larger scene.
[01:37.77] Everything assumes a fairer proportion.
[01:40.40]And here is the beginning of wisdom. |