HAPPINESS IS YOURS, YOURS TO FIND, YOURS TO RELISH

I proceed from my last post discussing the composition of reality to an analysis of Happiness. This post is about how Happiness fits into our Reality.

What is Happiness? Of what importance to us is it? Where do we find it? Where does it fit into this series on the mind and Dementia?

In the last post I discussed the subject of cognition. Cognition is that penchant we have to think and learn from that. It is an inherent part of us. I introduced the topic as follows:

We come into this world with a body primed to get along in this unique environment of time and space. This environment defined by Time and Space is altogether different than any other part of Creation or Cosmos. We somehow spontaneously become here by way of conception and birth.

What we seem to be as we come into this world as an individual person is this” We are a body needing to grow and adapt to living in this space/time environment to sustain itself; to gain physical skills and grow to become self-sufficient which we are not at the Get-go. As such we live in a progression of time and occupy space. Everything about us is dynamic, on the move. We grow over time; we acquire, we communicate with this environment we find. We do all of this to fit in.

Along with thinking we find another penchant about us. This is our disposition to seek happiness. We are driven through the stages of learning, then in the second stage executing what we have learned, This brings us to the third stage where we are given to reviewing it all. If we do not get stuck in one of the earlier stages it is in this last stage we appraise it all seeking out its meaning. How does the pursuit of happiness fit into this?

I try to answer this question in the essay I wrote some time ago entitled: HAPPINESS IS YOURS, YOURSTO FIND, YOURS TO RELISH. Click on this title to go there to read it and also follow the links presented there in hypertext.

In this essay I state two propositions. We seek happiness, which is part of being alive. Happiness is attainable; it is the product of living the life we are in and following what we are motivated to do in the stages of life we pass through. Most often we find Happiness at the end of our rainbow, when we have parsed out all of those efforts that led to futility. The ultimate sense of futility is inherent in the material nature of that from which we hoped for happiness but never quite found it.  

It is not until we position ourselves to look beyond the things of this world, look further and above this world, do we come into a beautiful realization that all of this that seemed futile was worthwhile in getting us to the goal of seeking a higher purpose.

In the first two of the three stages of our life, namely, initially learning our way, then applying what we have learned, we finally come to the last stage. We enter the last stage when we are no longer driven to learn, nor driven to apply any of what we have learned. It is in this stage we have time and are given to evaluating what and how we have done with the first two stages.

It is this time we look elsewhere for a source of happiness not of this world. If we are lucky enough to have reached this seed of insight we then often start assessing our existence, if any, beyond this life. This can lead us to transcendence above, beyond and after this life. A sense of relationship between our lifetime and a transcendent existence can unfold accompanied by a corresponding sense of purpose.

The purpose appears to be improving our transcendent experience by the time and effort we have expended in this life time. It starts unfolding as the reason for which we have lived. This sense is accompanied by a real sense of satisfaction which becomes a lasting happiness. This happiness is real, almost feels tangible, and it lasts unlike our experience of seeking happiness through any material source.

Happiness then takes on a quality like cognition. It is part of the ability we have in this world to help us get out of and on with what is. It is this to which we take our consciousness with all the facets it has leaving our body to this world.

Said simply: Happiness joins the rank of things that are us, that make us different from anything else of this world. It is an essential part that makes up that portion of us that is in this world but not of this world.

How does seeking happiness at this stage fit into what the rest of us has been about, and what specifically having Dementia is all about?

At least as I have found it, my happiness comes from the purpose I see in the manner I have Dementia. This comes from the fact that in having it for the past nearly six years since diagnosis I have retained a great part of my cognition. It is from this I can still think, analyze, read and write. I both understand what is happening to me and I can write about my experience from the inside of Dementia. I can also help others to understand and cope with having it.

I seem driven to do this. I find loads of satisfaction writing about it.

In writing it is my hope I help some one person with what I have. From this comes my happiness, my serenity. I have found the purpose of everything I experienced striving to find purpose fell short of permanent happiness. It was transitory fading upon its acquisition. I now realize that all was important to train me to where I am right now, understanding and applying all that I have learned to writing before I leave this world.

For the first time in my life, after a successful experience in the life of education, marriage, parenthood and profession I finally feel complete. I was in fact a highly successful trial lawyer. Neither that nor anything else left me feeling full.

Having this horrible disease does now do that. I am about what I came here to do.

This fits this series of discussion in this way: Happiness is another facet of our consciousness. It is something we bring into this life with us, work on it while here and are able to take out with us as we leave.

It is the quality of happiness which spurs us on through life working for more of it, refining it with this life, to take out of this life as we leave it.