what happiness looks like...

When I was a kid

I used to think that happiness in life was all about

big happenings, great strokes of luck and flushy stuff.

And so I started looking for extraordinary things, I waited for special events to happen

but I was missing the real happiness

the small things and the small victories,

I didn't appreciate what really mattered:

the sun on my skin

the feeling of walking barefoot in a field

the smile on a stranger's face

the taste of a freshly baked pie

the lyrics of an old song

the warmth of my grandma's hands

the smell in the air just before it starts to rain

the satisfaction of my first paycheck

the freedom you feel when you drive at night with the windows down

and the music loud

the sadness you feel when you finish reading a really good book

the smell of coffee in the morning, when you just woke up.

Those little and maybe trivial feelings are what real happiness is about.