Friday, August 31, 2018

Happiness, a inside work

My friend, Brother Paul Quenon, is a monk at the Abbey of Gethsemani. He has lived there for 50 plus years. He has a new book, "In Praise of the Useless Life, a monk's memoir." Brother Paul begins his book-memoir with a quote from Pascal. "Man's unhappiness spring from one thing alone, his incapacity to stay quietly in one room." I'm not so convinced that this is the "one thing alone" that causes unhappiness; however, if I'm not comfortable with myself I may never find happiness. Deep happiness and contentment are so related that I don't think they can be separated. For too many individuals, happiness seems to be sought outside of ourselves, examples: jobs, marriages, children, houses, material things, vacations, etc. These things are not unimportant. They do not, however, make one happy. Happiness is an inside job. I recommend reading and memorizing the Beatitudes, where blessed can mean happy, or Paul's letter to the Philippians written from prison and ask what is the Biblical teachings about happiness?

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