happiness

Remember how I told you that I didn't like the book Eat Pray Love, but that I liked some of the ideas in the book?  Well, here is one of those quotes/ideas that I liked...

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 our 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. (p. 260)

P.S. Tomorrow I'm going into San Francisco with Christine and Kara. I'm so excited! I haven't gotten to hang out in the city for a very long time. Yay! (Charging my camera as we speak -- or as I type and you do whatever you were doing when I was typing this... you get the picture.)