What Makes a Happy Life?
Photo by Dex Ezekiel on Unsplash
Someone once told me about their experience studying in Paris. They had stayed with a French family and were fascinated by how they lived. The family were fairly affluent people but you would never know it because everything about their lives were simple. All their appliances were old and outdated (no Pinterest kitchen!) and yet the lady of the house cooked the best meals this person ever had in their tiny little kitchen. They had an old box television, closed away in a cabinet. Entertainment wasn't a focal point for them, because relationships were more important. They all had small capsule wardrobes and no clutter, yet they lived with such style. They loved their lives- not because they had the things that society and corporations tells us will make us happy, but because they had a life full of loving relationships, delicious high quality food, appreciation of the arts and because they understood the beauty of simplicity, which left margin for them to sense and smell and touch and see the everyday gifts that surrounded them.
Do you ever think to yourself that people have become so consumed with their busy, consumer-driven lives that they have simply forgotten how to live well? Mistakingly thinking that better stuff equals a better life. Guess what? It doesn’t. Our ancestors understood this. They knew how to rest and enjoy their lives. They listened to the summer birds sing. They sat on the porch and watched the sunset go down, they lived their lives in rhythm with nature rather than against it. Hardships were plenty but satisfaction with life was exponentially higher than it is now, and they also generally had a lot less stuff.
I don’t want an Instagram-worthy life. A collection of the most recent and hip things won’t make me happy. I want a life filled with the things that really matter. Personally, my dream is to have a little cottage near the forest. A haven and a sanctuary filled with love and warmth and the smell of nourishing food simmering on the stove or of fresh bread baking in the oven. I want a safe place to be in relationship with Jesus and to teach my children the things that are important to me. I want a garden to tend to and the beauty of nature to fill me with wonder. A place to invite others into that evokes something within them. An invitation to let God’s presence warm them and fill a longing that they had been missing before. Candlelight by evening and dreamy whitewashed morning light by day. A place to seek and feel and learn and laugh and ponder.
But if we never obtain all that we dream, and life looks much more messy than in my idealistic vision, what if a happy life is still in our midst right now? Maybe it simply is a choice that we make everyday to cherish the small pleasures and blissful moments- like listening to the rain outside our window or that bird we hear singing while we wash the dishes. The smell of hot stew simmering on the stovetop. That hug our significant other offers at just the right time. Perhaps it’s the quote we keep pondering that gripped our hearts while reading a novel. The juicy tomatoes fresh from the garden that ripened so beautifully in the August heat. Or, that cup of hot tea we sip slowly while we watch the firelight dance and listen to it as it crackles. Maybe it’s that sweet moment you see your children all laughing together when they don’t realize you are watching them. I believe that if we look for it, happiness is indeed in our reach.
“Go back to your books, your fireplace, plant your trees, watch them grow. If more of us valued home; food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”
-Tolkien
