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ADJUSTING MY DIAL
Tuesday Nov. 1, 2011
column written/ published from my residence in Cranston (SE Calgary) near the Bow River valley
Morning walk: -1C/29F, mixed sky, steady north breeze; Gusta seems happy, she decided today was a day for eating most things she sniffed – perhaps trick/treat droppings from last night – so it was more of a tog-o-war than leisurely walk.
Sometimes logic fails me; I can’t understand what I know to be true, that will power, and won’t power, are not about power – they are about will. If I can figure that out, I can make for more happy days, more joyous ones, more enjoyable ones. Which begs a different argument – asks, is happiness connected to having successful days, successful ventures, successful relationships?
Defining happiness is an interesting exercise, but a rather dry one if we are only defining it generally – or describing happiness as it manifests in someone else. What is different, what is the same, what contribution do these elements make to how we accomplish, or feel we are accomplishing, fulfillment of goals and achieving happiness?
What makes a day happy, what makes my day happy, vis-à-vis one where I can’t grab a glimpse of it?
In other words, are accomplishment and strong performance connected to a feeling of happy, or to something else?
Happiness within ourselves is something I believe we easily feel and recognize – we feel and recognize it without uttering a word. It comes in degrees, as if there was a dial, with setting from 1 to 10; and we know that a setting of zero is neither happy or acceptable.
The reading/setting first thing in the morning will, for most of us, identify our tone for the day – or at least for the morning. Throughout the day, events and interactions will see me cranking it up, or down, frequently.
At the end of the day, I most often look back – finding the whole day isn’t happy, or sad, or strong or weak. A single day can have so many elements of everything . . . and only at the end can I assess whether it was an over-all great day. Some days that turn out to be horrendously difficult contain, within them, some of my most spectacular good moments.
I supposed a scientific way of defining happiness, accomplishment of goals, success in things . . . would be to examine what the circumstances are when we hit pay-dirt, and compare them to when we just land in the dirt.
Mark Kolke
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