Happiness.

I was reading The Museum Of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk when I came across a chapter called 'The Most Important Thing in Life Is to Be Happy'. For a long time I was always in search of Happiness. Not Earth shattering revelations or amazing achievements, just Happiness. Reading that chapter made me realize that ultimately, Happiness is what we aim for. It is what we expect our life to ultimately give us.

Another chapter was named 'Happiness Means Being Close to the One You Love , That's All' and I strongly disagreed. I always though of Happiness as a selfish thing. Something that you need and is present within you. Happiness can be found in other ways, I thought, not just in the company of those we love. Happiness meant getting something you wanted, reaching your goals. It was meant to be personal. Something that you could give to another person but personal, nonetheless. The whole of yesterday I had an internal conflict in my head, trying to disprove what Pamuk said. By the time I went to bed I was so sure of myself, so sure of what I thought was right.

Today was an entirely different story. I learnt that Happiness IS actually being close to the ones you love, that's all. 

Happiness is seeing someone after months or even years and realizing that no matter how much time passes, some things never change. Happiness is opposing teams being shot down by paint pellets. Happiness is listening to the same song on loop. It is food that satisfies a hungry stomach, the breeze in my hair that tugs my scarf away. Happiness is looking at the endless sea and knowing that everything is going to be okay. It is the knowledge that no matter how bad things may seem, they always  have a way of working themselves out. 

It is knowing that no matter where life may take us or where we may end up ten years from now, we will still  have the memory of today, the sea and the sand.

“In fact no one rec­og­nizes the hap­pi­est mo­ment of their lives as they are liv­ing it. It may well be that, in a mo­ment of joy, one might sin­cere­ly be­lieve that they are liv­ing that gold­en in­stant “now,” even hav­ing lived such a mo­ment be­fore, but what­ev­er they say, in one part of their hearts they still be­lieve in the cer­tain­ty of a hap­pi­er moment to come.”

—	Kemal Basmacı, The Museum of Innocence

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Kemal Basmacı, The Museum of Innocence