[NSD - 7/11/02]WORTH THINKING ABOUT: HAPPINESS, WHEN-WHERE-HOWThe Monks of Skete suggest some rules for happiness:"Our happiness doesn't depend on somebody else's action or on anything else. It doesn't depend on our success, but rather on the effort we're willing to put into everything we do. Even if people disappoint or fail us left and right, even if people turn against us, hurt us, lie about us, don't understand us, even if they think they know everything about us and judge us unfairly, they can't infringe upon our happiness. True happiness means that we have a deep-seated peace and tranquility that transcends all the difficulties of life, that cannot be disturbed by the chaos and warfare that might touch our lives."Digging in the trenches of a Nazi concentration camp Victor Frankl once said to a fellow inmate: 'This is where you've got to find your happiness—right here in this trench, in this camp.' It is a simple matter of fact: you can be just as happy in a concentration camp, horrific and terrible as it surely is, as you can in any other circumstance in life. For this is where we're supposed to find our happiness—where we are now, wherever that might happen to be, in all that we do, in whatever circumstances we find ourselves. Being happy involves the intense struggle of entering intimately into all that we do."See http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0316578517/newsscancom/ref=nosim for "The Monks of New Skete, In the Spirit of Happiness"—or look for it in your favorite library. (We donate all revenue from our book recommendations to adult literacy action programs.)
