During Sakura (cherry blossom) season in Tokyo
“A million happiness surround you” – This was written on a sign advertising its business in Hiroo, a community in Tokyo. This reminded me of a picture I took during the cherry blossom season (above) earlier this year and wondered how many other people would think of the cherry blossoms (especially when they floating down) as ‘blessings or happiness’ being showered upon us?
Going back to the ad ‘A million happiness surround you’, I began to wonder – a million happiness, isn’t that interesting. Why not a hundred or thousand? Why a million? So, I decided to try a little experiment with myself. I began to think of all happiness that surrounds me at this very moment – I live in a safe country, I have a warm, comfortable roof over my head, I have a job, I am healthy enough to be able to do things by myself, I have had an opportunity to go to school and study for as long as I wanted, I have nutritious food and clean water – wow! All this in just a few seconds, so if I kept going would I reach a million? Hmmm…that would mean I would have to be able to count that high!
I came across the following quote:
Each morning when I open my eyes I say to myself: I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I’m going to be happy in it. – Groucho Marx
To me, this quote is another way of saying that a ‘million happiness surround you’. Think about it, each of us can make ourselves happy or not. We have the power to change our mind and with it our world. It sounds so simple, yet for many of us, it is one of the most challenging things we attempt. Could it be that we have become caught up in the feeling that if we are too happy, something bad will happen? Or that, we would have to ‘pay for it later’? Could we just be afraid to be happy? Often people feel that if we are too happy, then there is nothing left to strive for. Maybe, we just mistake happiness for goals? Being happy is not synonymous to not having a goal or direction to move towards. I believe that being happy gives us more passion and desire to work towards our goals; to lead a purposeful life. If it is just as easy to be happy as it is not, why do we not choose it more often?
If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy, and inspires your hopes.
- Andrew Carnegie
