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| Max Ehrmann's Desiderata |
The definition of happiness is varied to all people. We have our own perspectives of what happiness is because we grew up in different environments and we grew up with different attitudes and mindsets. In a personal perspective, happiness is something we should cherish and not take for granted. For me, happiness is the fulfillment of your needs in life. With this fulfillment, you will feel satisfied and contented with what you have. Happiness is being able to do the good things that you want in your life freely. It is not forcing yourself to do things that you dislike just to please people because you know that you are capable with your talents and that it's okay to make mistakes. Happiness is letting your real self out, knowing that you are beautiful in every way despite of people's judgements. In short, happiness is that feeling when tranquility, liberation and contentment all settle down within yourself.
In the poem 'Desiderata', this hard-hitting quote made my admiration for this poem more significant: "If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time." This quote is an approach we all should learn to handle this load people put onto us. As we reside in this society where people would always expect something from us, the last thing that we would do is to compare ourselves to others. When we compare ourselves, it means we do not appreciate our self-worth and without knowing our self-worth, we cannot find happiness within us. If we have a mindset of thinking that it's acceptable for mistakes to be done, then we can easily handle this pressure. If we compare ourselves, we may encompass a hatred for these people we've compared to because we are afraid of their success. And always, do not expect to much when waiting for results because if it doesn't meet your expectations, these will lead us to doubt our efforts. Remember, strive for improvement, not perfection. As you achieve things, your achievements in life must not boost your ego - always remain in a humble state because there's always a time of success and a time of failure. There's always someone who would match or break your achievements. Of course, let us not do evil things for the benefit of our success because it serves no purpose if the efforts are fabricated and unauthentic.
Reading and analyzing the theme that Ehrmann's Desiderata is trying to convey made me realize that it is opening a big part of our minds of wisdom and experience in this world. We are bound to grasp new lessons that are applicable to our lives and Desiderata makes it an easier task because it opens new doors to what the concept of life and happiness really is. Desiderata is this one big slap to our faces that the way we solve our problems is complicated and that the poem is actually the simplest way to solve our personal conflicts. We should week good or decent relationships with people, not evilness and vengeance. We should learn to dwell only on our business, not by comparing it to someone else's. We should be ourselves when we love, not by pretending or taking selfishness of it. We should be gentle and considerate to our well-being, not to be too hard on ourselves. And of course, no matter how many trials, failures, downfalls and negativity that life may present to us, always strive for happiness. As I pen these words in this essay, it has helped me express a great part of myself from the pressures I deal with to what happiness really feels like for me. Every word I write is essential for my expression of what I feel for I am never vocal about my problems in life, so writing and composing has always become my go-to's when I needed to steam off.
Finding happiness in our lives is a simple yet difficult thing to achieve. We are easily let down by these judgements and comparisons by people. As I am on a journey to find who I really am and to feel what happiness is like, one day in my life, I can be able to feel these three things - contentment, liberation and tranquility, I can finally take the deepest breath and say "This is it. This is the prime of my life. This is the summit, the peak. All those material possessions and achievements can't even come closer to this." Remember, you don't always have to smile when you feel delightment, as long as you feel that inner peace, then you are happy.
