What is my ideal of perfect happiness?

One of my favorite cartoons as a child was Peanuts.  I felt so sorry for poor pathetic Charlie Brown.  My favorite cartoon of him was when he was asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, he answered, “Outrageously happy.”  I answered with that for years.  Now that I am older, I realize that happiness, outrageous or perfect, either one is not attainable.  Contentment and serenity are much more reasonable attainments.

My closest I ever come to perfect happiness is when I am in my garden and listening to my music.  The world travels very far away from me.  I am in my thoughts or singing along to a favorite song.  My hands are dirty, my body is sweating bullets and I am so very content.

Another time when I am very happy, or content is when I am at a gathering of my friends, family or my book club.  Just the closeness of those that I love the best around me gives me peace of mind.  I’m smiling now just thinking about it.

My most recent bout of happiness has come through a grandson.  Seeing my baby with her baby gives me an ecstatic feeling of joy and peace.  I never thought I would become a grandmother and am still just flabbergasted each time I see them together.

Meditation also gives me a lot of peace.  Just sitting and being quiet with my thoughts of breathing in the positive and breathing out the negative in my life.  My newest meditation is to breathe in health and breathe out pain and sickness.  I’m working on myself since medicine and physical therapy isn’t seeming to be working well for me.

I guess I have learned in my old age that perfect happiness is not a realistic endeavor.  Realistic is being content with what you have in the here and now.

Peace be with you.