Photo by ertru, MorgueFile.com, 2016
I don’t have….
I wish I had……
If only he/she would…
I am sick—why?
I lost a child…..
My marriage is not like theirs…
Smile? I have nothing to smile about!
These are unhappy, bitter thoughts–with lots of I’s and me’s. How do we make those bitter thoughts become better thoughts? How do we capture happiness for ourselves?
There are four levels of happiness:
Getting what I want when I want it: Instant gratification is the lowest form of happiness. A new car, a new pair of shoes, a filet mignon, sex, are all things which give us instant gratification. This is very self-centered happiness, and short lived.
Praise for what I have done: Personal achievement is a higher form of happiness than gratification of our desires. Getting compliments for our behavior or for things we have done, the plaque on the wall and the award at the national meeting, mother of the year award, etc., but they are still fleeting, and can be self centered, though we do start to reach out beyond the ME to touch others.
Helping someone else: Doing things to help others provides a higher level of happiness than personal achievement, but if it is not united to Christ, it sometimes feeds our pride. Philanthropy does draw us out of ourselves, away from our own carnal desires, to touch other people’s lives, and so it provides a higher level of happiness than the previous two.
But real happiness comes from this:
Unification with God who made us and seeks us: The closer we unite ourselves to Our Lord, the happier we will be on earth. Just ask someone who has surrendered their life to God.
You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.–St. Augustine
http://forums.catholic.com/index.php
Translating a World on the Edge 