On Finding Happiness (and keeping it)

 Here's to Finding Happiness, wherever we are!
This verse takes on special significance right now;

Whoever gives heed to instruction prospers,
and blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD
Prov.16:20

Hopefully we are all doing our best part to heed the instructions we are given;
whether for physical health and safety due to Corona V. or
for our spiritual well-being due
to mortal bodies being instilled with Immortal Soul!

 It was a simple chili and salad supper;

simply browned 2lbs. beef, added precooked beans from the freezer (black, navy and kidney) 

and 1 large jar of homemade canned marinara sauce.

Happiness is not something we can force by sheer command

The secret to its blessing we must always find firsthand

A balance of surrender, strength, blindness and open gaze

Gathered into a heart of humble thankfulness and praise

Happiness can’t be purchased (though sometimes we think it can)

So we stretch our purse-strings to accommodate the plan

Alas; the glass that gleamed with dreamy Brigadoon-spheres breaks

And spills what turns to wisdom as we learn through our mistakes

The irony of happiness keeps us in constant awe

Where greed and discontentment complicate its simple law

Where need opens a doorway to a world of sweet surprise

As we discover undercover blessings in disguise

Happiness is no fancy feast or ‘gorge-yourself’ buffet

The greatest to the least can find its kind hip-hip-hooray

As we become more thankful then less reluctant to give

Happiness by the heart-full spills into the life we live

© Janet Martin