Visit our new site at grassrootsliving.tv

Did We Forget About ‘The Pursuit of Happiness’?

So I was reading the DrudgeReport this morning (my news site of choice) and I started laughing when I read this headline:

Brazil looks at adding ‘happiness’ to constitution

I immediately conjured up images in my head of the Carnival in Rio de Janeiro. Only the Brazilians - known for their crazy parties - would add ‘happiness’ to their constitution.

Then suddenly I realized - how could I forget - that in the United States we also guarantee ‘happiness’ for all our citizens. Remember the phrase (Reach back into your mind to all that random knowledge you store back there):

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

How quickly we forget about happiness. With everyone worried about getting their next paycheck or how they’re going to pay their mortgage or keep their lights on, happiness seems to have been put on the back burner. I can’t remember the last time we in this country talked about happiness. Kind of depressing actually.

However, my spirits were restored as I began to research online the “pursuit of happiness.”

Did you know there’s an entire nonprofit that dedicates itself to studying happiness - the history of it, the science of it and how we can all try to be happier in our lives. Pursuit-of-happiness.org even has a section of teaching resources.

There’s also Happiness.com where you can look up happiness tips and positive tips. Even the trivia section can bring a little bit of happiness into your day. Like you can find out the answer to the question:

Which planet is about 93 million miles from the sun?

Hmmm. I’m going to go with Pluto. Not because I actually think that’s the answer but because Pluto has always been my favorite planet. Again, I don’t really have a reason for that either. I think it’s just because Pluto is so far away that I find it mysterious and fascinating. So just thinking about Pluto for even these few seconds has taken my mind off my hectic day ahead and has brought me a small piece of happiness.

If you want to look up how to be more happy in your life, it only requires a quick Google search of pursuit of happiness. Nothing fancy. It’s so easy to do that it may make you a little happy. Hey, these days, it’s the small things in life.

* By the way, the answer is Earth!