happiness as extra credit

So the extra credit assignment is to write 2 pages on what makes me happy and what should I do about it.

Now I have to figure out what it is to be happy.  Is happy an active or passive state?  I'm happy when I'm horseback riding.  I'm happy when I'm dancing.  I'm happy when I'm kayaking.  This active happiness isn't what I consider "true happiness" though.  It's too fleeting.  It's an action, not a state of being.

I'm happy when I can see/hear evidence of my family spreading and connecting to the world and each other.  I think I equate happiness with satisfaction.  A calmness that underlies all the chaos that erupts in day to day life.  My idea of happiness is pretty passive because it has to be underneath the activity like a foundation.

Hearing my family across the street giggle and talk over breakfast while I watered in the front yard was that feeling.  Hearing Alex and his friends talk all night is that feeling.  Seeing Caitlin bake is that feeling.  Falling asleep in the living room while Gayle talks about her upcoming travels and driving in the car with Gary are that feeling.  All pretty passive acts.  But that feeling, is it happiness?  Is it evidence of happiness, but not the actual thing.  Now that the family across the street isn't mine and the giggling over breakfast is many states away there is a sadness, but it does not replace the happiness.  It's just another feeling resting atop the foundation of peaceful happiness.

What to do about it...

That goes back to that active vs passive thing.  What I need to do about it is stay connected.  More on that later.