Finland was recently named the happiest country on earth. They have received this accolade several times. In a country where winters are long, dark, and exceptionally cold, that's pretty amazing. I mean look at the snow and ice in the photo. I wonder how they do it.
Throughout my life, I have found happiness to have been an ephemeral state. I have known great happiness, often related to the big highs in my life, traveling to foreign places; standing on the rim of the Grand Canyon; birthdays, and holidays, a good marriage, and friendships, oh my goodness, YES, wonderful friendships!
And yet, I sometimes feel unhappy. So much much bad stuff is going on in the world and, more painfully, in my own country, that it is difficult to feel happy. I am not the only person I know who can no longer stomach the news and how hopeless it can make you feel. Hopeless and profoundly sad that evil is at work here. But heck! I can make myself unhappy because Amazon didn't deliver my order overnight, but this post is really not about that.
Despite my frequent despair about such things, I was recently sitting on the porch stoop, planting a container of flowers for summer, and I realized that I felt completely happy and content. What?? How is that possible, when I have not yet solved the problem of climate change?
Here are some things that Finns say make them so happy:
1. Home, sweet home. Your own home.
2. Sunny weather.
3. An honest relationship.
4. A relationship based on trust.
5. The freedom to be yourself.
6. A clean home.
7. Friendship, gestures or words in a relationship.
8. Friendship, actions within a relationship.
9. Fidelity in a relationship.
10. Security in a relationship.
The Finns also love an active relationship with nature. It would not make me happy to break open a frozen pond to go swimming in winter, but to each his own.
With the possible exception of #6, I realized when I read this that I can honestly say that I have all these things in my life. (Maybe the times when I feel unhappy are when the house is a mess!)
I also love a close relationship with nature. I love sitting outside in the sunshine, listening to the many birds around the house, and dirtying my hands with planting things that will bring me beauty and joy come summer. I feel nourished and uplifted by a walk in the woods with my husband or good friends. These things brings me contentment and peace - happiness even.
Maybe just doing these things slows me down enough to realize that the Top 10 above are in place in my life. I didn't expect to have these, and yet, an honest appraisal assures me that they are real. Even when I feel that everything is wrong and nothin' ain't right.
I'm with the Finns. These are the things that matter to me, and for which I am grateful. (Oops, I forgot to mention coffee and good bread!)
Unless you make your own Top 10 list, this post could border on the cliche' - i.e. happiness comes from the small things in life; be grateful for what you have, etc. My list is not necessarily everyone's list. After all there are people who actually want to be President. I think the key is to make your own list and to be able to see that you have the things that make you happy.
Getting older brings a lot of summing up. How did I do? Happiness or regret? I can count things left undone in my life. I can count things for which I am sorry. But, I can also count myself happy that the fundamental things I want have come to me. Actually I'm pretty sure that they didn't come to me until I knew that I wanted them.
Tomorrow, I probably will be whining or complaining about some wrong thing, but it's nothing that a trip to the garden center won't cure.
