Butterfly of Happiness
“Happiness is a Butterfly which,
when pursued is just beyond your grasp…
but if you will sit down quietly,
may alight upon you.” ~Nathaniel Hawthorne
Are you a happiness chaser? Do you walk around with your "butterfly net" in constant pursuit of the elusive Butterfly of Happiness?
Sometimes when I get into conversation with friends or acquaintances, or am out running errands, I get tired watching the "Pursuit of Happiness" going on all around me.
So many people are running around with their nets chasing the butterflies of career, money, cars, houses, beauty, relationships, success, and things. It is exhausting!!
I must admit that in my life I have been one of those people running around trying to catch happiness. I thought that if I just took all the right actions, acquired all the right things, became all the right roles and looked the right way, I would be successful, valuable, and worthy. I thought I would be happy at last.
I sought out projects to fulfill the emptiness in me. I bounced between relationships in order to validate me--to feel beautiful, worthy, and to not feel alone.
And when all those things were “caught”, I convinced myself that life was good. I was happy. Yet, it always seemed to be short-lived. There was still a feeling of lack within me. I still felt a void. “Now what?” I asked myself.
It finally began to dawn on me that my happiness was temporary and fleeting because it came from temporary and fleeting things. I realized that the days where I felt good was when I accomplished something, got my to-do list crossed off, when my house was clean. This was when I felt I could be happy.
It was an Aha moment! An epiphany!! Lasting happiness must come from within. If I was not happy, then I must not be happy in myself.
I made a huge decision. No matter what it took, no matter how long it took, I would learn to love and appreciate me--to forgive myself for all my shortcomings, to let go of my incessant need to do and to accomplish.
I became very quiet inside of myself. I let myself breathe. I gave myself space. I let go of my desire to “acquire worth” and realized in my willingness put down my “butterfly net”, that I was enough without doing a thing.
It was in that place of just being present and accepting that the true butterfly of happiness alighted upon me. I realized when I was in need of nothing to make me happy. I felt happiness as I had never felt it before.
--Tina Su
Photo by: Kevin Cole
“Happiness is a Butterfly which,when pursued is just beyond your grasp…
but if you will sit down quietly,
may alight upon you.” ~Nathaniel Hawthorne
Are you a happiness chaser? Do you walk around with your "butterfly net" in constant pursuit of the elusive Butterfly of Happiness?
Sometimes when I get into conversation with friends or acquaintances, or am out running errands, I get tired watching the "Pursuit of Happiness" going on all around me.
So many people are running around with their nets chasing the butterflies of career, money, cars, houses, beauty, relationships, success, and things. It is exhausting!!
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