Happiness

What is happiness? We have experiened beauty and wonders, shared joys and amazement, and we have called each of them 'happiness'. Is it that of your heart being filled up to the brim with this warm feeling of felicità that you can't wait to share with your closest? Is it that of a steady current of bonheur that charges through your heart, revitalizing your mind, body and soul? Or is it the song of kaligayahan that echoes from these red velvet folds, the sound which resonates with the rhythm of our bodies to realize the maximum amplitude of tranquility?

Happiness is a universal feeling that requires no translation. In fact, in loose terms, we can even call it a global language. We understand it by the lighting up of eyes, the lifting of the corners of lips or the straight row of teeth staring back at us.

For many, happiness is a goal to be reached, a dream to be realized. In fact, it is such a popular goal that collective terms has been coined. For example, we know of the infamous American Dream (infamous, because the pursuit of happiness in this case has more often than not turned into a pursuit of unhappiness), or for something of local vintage, the Singapore Dream.

Still, what is happiness? Happiness... it seems like a burst of flavour that sweetens our lives. And just like the nature of flavours, it changes. People, places, timing... the concoction that makes up the flavouring is never the same. It can be short, yet it can be long too. It is given to those who sought after it the least. It is unique, yet it follows an archetype. It is specific, yet it can be vague. Happiness is a question, yet it is also an answer. What is happiness? Happiness.

Everyone seeks happiness, but happiness comes to us in different forms and flavours. Some brands of happiness appeal more to us while others make us repugnant. There is no right or wrong happiness - there is only happiness. Perhaps happiness is like art - while there may be varying standards set to measure it, there will always be diverging opinions.

Happiness. The antidote and the plague.