Chasing Contentment

“No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied.

No matter how much we hear, we are not content.”

Ecclesiastes 1:8

• I don’t know who said it, but it makes a lot of sense to me: Happiness isn’t something you experience; it’s something you remember. That is, it comes after the fact, always. It is a result rather than a goal. Paradoxically, usually it is the result of striving for a goal that focuses attention away from ourselves. To become totally involved in pursuing our passions, rather than our happiness, brings us to the point, later, in which we realize that we have—surprise!—reached a state of peace and contentment. The poster on my office wall, with words by Nathaniel Hawthorne, puts it so well: “Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you pursue it, the more it eludes you. But when you turn your attention to other things, it comes, and sits gently on your shoulder.” Let happiness land where it will, in its own time and place.

#inspiration #cupofcomfort