Happiness

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Last night I had a wonderful night out with friends. I had a great time, really enjoying myself, and I felt happy. This morning I woke up feeling rested and good, much better than I'd envisioned after all the exercise on the dancefloor. So, being in a good mood, I decided to put on some happy music, and one of the songs in the playlist was "Thank Goodness" from the Wicked soundtrack. It's where everyone praises the Good Witch Glinda and she declares how happy she is with her new life in Oz.

There's a line where she sings "happy is what happens when all your dreams come true, isn't it?" and I thought to myself "no, it isn't." I'm of the opinion that if all your dreams come true, then you don't have enough dreams. Dreams are what inspire us, propell us forward and make us reach higher. They are wishes transformed into fantastic flights of fancy, and when one wish comes true, another takes its place to keep us on our momentum. That's my theory.

But happiness? I think happiness comes from joy, and joy is what you find in the moment when you let go of the non-existent future and the long-gone past, just soaking up what is now and knowing that you don't want to be anywhere else but in it. Like last night when I spent time hanging out with friends, some of whom I'm blessed to have known for almost 20 years, or when I was sweeping across the dancefloor with Simon and saw him light up like a sunrise. I felt alive, filled with joy and... happy.

I still had my dreams and aspirations, but I didn't need them to come true in order to be happy. So maybe Glinda has it backwards. Maybe happiness isn't what happens when all your dreams come true. Maybe all your dreams come true because you are happy.

"and if that joy, that thrill
doesn't thrill like you think it will..."
- Wicked