This morning I was reading a little more in Elizabeth Gilbert's book and found this:
"...people universally tend to think that happiness is a stroke of luck,
something that will maybe descend upon you like fine weather if you're fortunate enough. But that's not how happiness works. Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it, you must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it. If you don't, you will leak away your innate contentment. It's easy enough to pray when you're in distress but continuing to pray even when your crisis has passed is like a sealing process, helping your soul hold tight to its good attainments."
I know that I have been taught this since I was a small child sitting in church every Sunday, but somehow reading it at this point in my life is like having a light bulb turned on. It is so fitting with my one word, my one resolution for the coming year.
This is my goal for 2008, to find the happiness within me and hold on to it forever.
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