Wish For More Than Happiness
“Don't wish me happiness.
I don't expect to be happy all the time...It's gotten beyond that somehow.
Wish me courage and strength and a sense of humor.
I will need them all.”
Anne Morrow Lindbergh - A Gift From The Sea
Have you ever considered that wishing for happiness may be too shallow a goal?
While there's certainly nothing wrong with this emotion, it stops short of something really satisfying. I know plenty of "happy" people, but they often lack joy. They seem to walk through life protective of whatever happiness they've scrapped together.
"Happy" people often strike me as fragile in ways that joyful people aren't. While living for the moment, they're waiting for a shoe to drop and everything they've worked for to fall apart.
There is always an underlying fear.
Those with joy are people who know their purpose, and, in knowing their purpose, they are bold and unafraid. I think this is what Anne Lindbergh is getting at...
Courage
Strength
A Sense of Humor
Fear doesn't stick around when those three factors are in play. These are the ingredients of a bigger life, where happiness is only a byproduct of something bigger.
A life without fear and marked by joy; in that scenario, happiness is merely a nice subset emotion.
I wish that for you. I wish that for me.