I don't mean happy because happiness has the implication of being at a high point and the only direction to go afterwards is down. I'm talking about that feeling of contentment that comes with satisfaction with where your life was, is and is going to be. Things may get bad in the future but that isn't a present concern. It's that feeling when all feels right in the world and it will continue to be. Where you feel like you can truly let tomorrow worry about itself and your whole situation is exactly where you want it to be. You are where you want to be and you couldn't ask to be anywhere different. The music you're listening to contributes to that kind of beauty. The work you're doing, the people you talk to, the people you're surrounded with, just everything around you is good. It isn't perfect in the sense that everything is going perfectly but contentment I feel is what perfection feels like. Just because things aren't perfect, doesn't mean it can't feel perfect. It feels like perfection has been achieved through the situation regardless of how imperfect the actual situation is. There's something beautiful about the moment and it can only be broken through distractions of the mind. But even with those distractions, one can still be content.
Happiness is almost like a mood, it changes when you get bored or angry or distracted. When you're content, you can be content without realizing that you're content. Children are often content and only realize it as adults. A lot of children don't realize how good they actually have it until they become adults. Adults point out how good children have it and don't relish in their situations. Contentment has to do with that relishing. Eating a good, hearty meal with some good conversation, good music in the background and things to think about after. That's contentment to me. Contentment is living a life of thankfulness for everything that you have. Some people have it good, others have it better, others have it bad, yet others have it worse. Contentment perhaps is a relative thing but its finding that era of perfection in your life, holding onto it and trying to sustain it. It's not a moment when the light hits a scene just so that a beauty is captured in a snapshot of one's memory.
Life isn't about snapshots. It's a huge long video. Why would you only want snapshots of happiness? I'd rather a looooong video of pure unadulterated contentment. Is it easy to achieve? Hell no. People make it seems to easy by reducing it into words of "I did this this and this." They can say it was hard, but even that "It was hard." reduces how difficult that journey really is. Contentment isn't about a destination. Life never was, yet people treat it like it is. If you think about it that way, people are really just striving to die. Their destination is death. It's like the stages before death. School. College. Work. Family. Promotion. Kids. Grandkids. Death. Kind of makes you wonder what's the point of it all, doesn't it?
