Happiness is the purpose of human life. Without it, nothing else—health, wealth, good relations—can truly matter. It is the bedrock upon which everything else rests, and most thoughtful people understand this. It is only natural, then, that we seek to discover how to achieve happiness and hold it fast in our lives. I sometimes hear it said that no one has ever found a manual for living happily. Yet the world is full of content and joyful people, eager to share their wisdom on how happiness is won and kept. They write books about it, sometimes quite beautiful ones. I offer you one such guide, tested and verified in my own life over the past two years, in the pages that follow.
The essential thing—the only essential thing—is to do what you love. Always. Without exception. Every moment spent doing something you despise is not living; it is a slow dying. Be resolute. Do not be swayed by talk of duty, of obligation, of what you must do or should do. Resist it. Do not allow yourself to be manipulated. Always choose based on your own will, freely exercised. Anyone who insists you must do something seeks to rob you of your freedom, and with it, your happiness. Ask yourself plainly: whose satisfaction matters more—some tyrant's demands or your own liberty and joy? Choose with clarity. As one wise voice has said, "Freedom is an existential choice. It is not merely one option among many; it is man's decisive choice to be free or not to be free. The choice of freedom is the precondition for every other choice. And the choice of freedom is the precondition for the authentic self of the human person."
Remember this next: everything springs from either love or fear. Nothing exists between them. All that comes from love leads to happiness; all that comes from fear leads away from it. This truth shows itself most clearly in how people choose their life's work. One person selects a field that genuinely calls to him, even if it offers no promise of prestige, wealth, power, or fame. Such people, strangely, often flourish—and they alone seem to wonder how it came to pass. By contrast, another chooses work that stirs no passion in him, driven by fear that he cannot succeed in what he truly desires. He suffers through his studies, his work becomes a burden, and in the end, he rarely prospers anyway—for those who dislike their work cannot do it well. A clear victory of love over fear.
Perhaps the simplest of all methods is to surround yourself with beautiful things that make you feel blessed. For instance, as I write these words, I listen to a magnificent piano composition by Isaac Shepard, wear a shirt soft against my skin, a beautiful watch adorning my wrist, and outside the sun descends in its slow fire. On my desk sits a glass of red wine. In such an atmosphere, unhappiness becomes nearly impossible—it is suffused with beauty.
The most wondrous thing about happiness is this: when you possess it in abundance, a natural urge awakens to share it. You begin to praise others more freely, to smile without restraint, to laugh and overflow with vitality. There is a definition of the intelligent person that fits here—one whose actions enrich both himself and those around him. Happiness is precisely such a thing. So let us be happy, let us be wise, let us be positive, free, beautiful, and overflowing with love. In his youth, my grandfather wrote a reflection on how he wished he could love the whole world. And I tell you, it is possible. Any person can be happy and has every right to be. That is why I wish you all fortune and the courage to find it. Know that it is worth the search.
God created the world to be loved, and to be a place of help, of laughter. From an idea came a word; from a word came the deed; the world was born, and mankind delighted to dwell in it. Then came the darkness—the wailing and weeping. People forgot how to laugh. Wars erupted, violence and bitterness spread, each stealing another's joy.
We grew anxious about all things. Slowly the world descended to its depths, and He saw that it was wrong. He knew that love is the gateway to heaven, and that whoever finds God stops searching for the way back. Then comes the golden age—one is content and brimming with gratitude.
He is blessed with fortune and health, filled with joy in all things. The world, nature, the city and the flower—all are perfect. And he is the one who praises God through the world, day and night, blessed abundantly with love.