Can we be happy forever?

Without doubt, the pursuit of happiness is a never-ending affair, and so we continue to explore this rather abstract concept. In the last one week, I have asked at least 10 people whether they are happy.

The responses have been as varied as the colours of the rainbow.

One of the people I spoke to is always laughing.

He speaks in a loud voice and his energy is unmistakable.

If I was not close to him, I would swear he has never experienced a flash of the blues.

Poetic he is, and it is many hours we have spent talking about life; about why things happen the way they do; about the days and weeks and months found in the calendar.

His insights into the subject of happiness are fodder for thought.

My friend says deep thinkers lose the capacity for joy because to them, all looks temporary.

Yet he is one of them, and being the honest person he always has been, he says that this is a dangerous way to go through life.

Of course everything is temporary, so one has to learn to seize the moment, he says.

My friend says he is always afraid to be very content, because when this happens, he knows the dark cloud will soon cast a shadow over his life.

And so on that glorious day, when it hits him that all is well in his world — something heart-breaking and life-changing happens, and he is thrown back to the throes of melancholy. Despite his depression, he will find strength in himself to laugh, as though mocking life that it can never floor him. He will continue to laugh loudly, unfazed.

That is the part I really admire about him. Another friend, a mother of two, said she is happy because she is alive. She appreciates the “gift” of life. I reminded her that there are hundreds among us who sleep wishing they do not wake up.

She said she has chosen to be happy, that it is all about choice.

She knows she has stress but she just wants to be happy, that it could be worse... She believes people put themselves in certain positions where they cannot be happy.

And a colleague says he is happy because he would be having a cold beer later in the day.

He too is happy to be alive, he may not be settling for less, but he appreciates that he is not unwell and he has a job.

He sure is not a complainer, despite the fact that he has been nursing a bad flu.

I say happiness must be that ordinary day devoid of hurt or heartache.

I say happiness must be that day with less complaining and more accolades.

Happiness does not have to be fleeting: Sometimes you realise you were indeed happy when the worst happens, and you look back at past days with regret.