Be happy

 Try this: Happy water!
Spring water infused with  lemongrass  and
 chilled with  iced berries

“Perhaps if one really knew when one was happy, one would know the things that were necessary for one’s life.”

                                    Joanna Field

When Julie Andrews sang about her favourite things in the classic film, The Sound of Music, it sounded like she knew exactly what made her happy:

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things...

Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings...

http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/thesoundofmusic/myfavoritethings.htm

Lyrics that make you swoon by the sheer joy that the images induce. But we don’t often list things that make us happy together with life’s necessities. It’s as if we don’t allow them to carry the same weight. The mere idea that a happiness inducer might be regarded as a necessity feels frivolous.

Food is necessary, as is clothes, shelter, human contact, medical assistance, transport and to make ample provision for old age. Happymakers may also be food, but it’s a perfectly chilled mango on a hot  African summer’s day, or pancakes with cinnamon sugar on a rainy one.

It’s clothes, but it’s the favourite old sweater in a colour that lights up your eyes and make people take a second glance. 

It’s a roof over your head, but it’s the place you call home, filled with things that hug you with their presence when you step over the threshold.

It's human interaction, but it's companionship that gives meaning to lives, encourages growth and acknowledges one another's potential.  

Maybe the biggest surprise in Joanna Field’s quote lies in her stating happiness as a necessity. We need to be happy! But we often don’t know the answer to:” When are you happy?” Or “What makes you happy?”  

To find out might well be an adventure. A necessary one.

Matilda