I think I became a much happier person back when I read the quotation by Rilke:

I don’t even want to be happy all the time. As in this next quotation by AML:

“Don't wish me happiness
I don't expect to be happy all the time...
It's gotten beyond that somehow.
Wish me courage and strength and a sense of humour.
I will need them all.” 

— Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Nor do I think we should ever feel obligated to be happy.

I will feel happy exactly the way I wish to feel happy, which might include some sadness around the edges. There’s nothing worse than someone telling you to smile or to be happy. But I have the voice of Cary Grant saved to my desktop, saying, “Happy thoughts, darling” from An Affair to Remember. Apparently he signed his letters often, thusly. And for whatever reason it’s become my mantra. I’m saying it to myself is the difference I guess. And well, Cary Grant.

Sound file found here.

January 31, 2020