As I begin working toward my goals for 2009, I’m trying, as always, to stay clear about what’s important and what’s not in the large scheme of things.
Greg Hicks, a happiness researcher who “studies people and communities that thrive,” travels around the world asking people who is the happiest person they know. He then interviews that individual. As he tells NY Times journalist Joan Raymond, “It’s a cliché, but what I’ve learned is the happiest people don’t necessarily have the most stuff.
| “When I was in Vietnam, I asked a villager who was the happiest person around. He directed me to a home for elderly people and told me to ask for a very special woman. I got to the home and met this tiny, fragile person. This woman was brutalized during the Vietnam War and lost all of her family. She suffered countless indignities. Yet she told me she had people who care for her, she had food to eat and a place to sleep. And she could look out of her window and see the birds. She didn’t need anything else.”
To read Raymond’s full interview with Hicks (“Happiness Has No Itinerary”), click here. To learn more about Hicks’ research, go to www.choosetobehappy.com. |
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Prill Boyle is the author of Defying Gravity: A Celebration of Late-Blooming Women.
thank you so much Lisa, that helps a lot. I know he tried to blame me for so much stuff, but like I told all of his family and mine none of that added up to a divorce. I do realize it's his needs, it just hurts so bad to think how many years he's
How funny....i only very recently (within last week) read the coconut oil articles on the web. (100 uses, 80 uses etc.) so i bouht some and ordered some from amazon. (Im a stockpiler.)
Have started trying some of the uses. I tried using it a
Hi Prill
Very simple for me – happiness is my family.
Best wishes
Anne
Hi Anne, That’s exactly what my 85-year old mom always says.
What makes me happy? No one or nothing else can make me happy but ME. I have wonderful friends and a fabulous life. All by choice. All my friends and things I do enhance my life.
How true! Happiness starts and ends with us. Gratitude adds to it. Researchers say that friends and family also play a significant role.