A Happy Place

Someone asked me recently, 'Are you happy?'

I then asked the person, 'What is happy?'

To which he replied, 'Happy means happy loh!'

Hmmm....

So what is happy?
What is happiness?
What is being happy?

Happy can be defined as:

1. Delighted, pleased, or glad, as over a particular thing
2. Characterized by or indicative of pleasure, contentment, or joy
3. Favored by fortune; fortunate or lucky
4. Apt or felicitous, as actions, utterances, or ideas.
5. Obsessed by or quick to use the item indicated (usually used in combination): A trigger-happy gangster. Everybody is gadget-happy these days.

Happiness can be defined as:

1. The quality or state of being happy.
2. Good fortune; pleasure; contentment; joy.

Does it mean that I am happy when I am always flashing my teeth in a Cheshire's cat-like-ear-to-ear grin?

Does happy mean that I am always laughing the boisterous laughter of the land of the Giants?

Does being happy mean that I am never sad?

Does happiness mean that I should rename myself with a new name called Joy Unspeakable and assign a new job title which is called the Minister of Making People 'ROFLMAO'?

Does living in the state of happiness mean living in the transcendence of happiness while constantly mantra-ing OMs which are bursting with happiness?

Well, here is what I think happy is.

I think happiness mean that I live my life to the best I can even with Death breathing down my neck and hearing its tick-tock-tick-tock in my ear.

I think happiness mean that I when I go to bed at night, I can still smile to myself and say that it was a good day even though the bowels misbehaved themselves tremendously till the bum-bum had the imprint of the toilet bowl. Because I still have my bowels and tomorrow will be a better day. Or the day after. Or the week after that.

I think happiness is when I did not do anything constructive but lazed around, taking a well deserved break which my body, soul and mind needed. Though i think hours on the iPad playing finding-hidden-objects-games is VERY constructive!

I think being happy is resting much and using my brains to rationalise logically that Rome wasn't built in a day. Neither can my health be built in a day. It has been 38 months now and I am happy at how much I have progressed.

I think happiness is when your true self is spoken out.

I am happy because I have learnt so much, gained so much in the midst of my losses and grown so much. I can plant my own vegetables! I can eat so many more foods now! I have a very beautiful and supportive family! I have great friends! I found people who are in the same boat as I am in! And I am alive! If that is not happy, I do not know what happy means to you then...

And if I am never sad, how can I know what happiness is?
If I never know what pain is, how then can I know what it is like to be relieved when the pain is gone?
Happiness is sweet when you fight hard for it or when you stop struggling to be happy.

And happiness is being able to find a constant in the inconsistency of IA.