You know what happiness is? he said.
Contentment? I suggested.
Not even close, he said through the burnished orange of this late autumn afternoon.
Money? Wealth?
Come on, he said. You know better that that.
Then what? I asked.
Curiosity.
What?
It’s not true what they say about cats, you know. That old proverb about curiosity killed the cat. It’s to stop you changing lanes.
You’re beginning to sound like a zen poet, I said. Like Li Po.
Become like a cat, he said. Go out into the world, cat-curious. You can never NOT be happy if you’re finding out things.
do you agree?
where is happiness found for you?
what is the chief impediment for happiness, do you think?
John Malone 
I think happiness may be being open to all the world has on offer. Good of bad, everything there is has things there for you, as long as you are open to what it is actually saying to you.
I’m working at this as a Stoic, eschewing the idea of ‘happiness’ being a basket of goodies – here today, gone tomorrow, and thinking instead of ‘happiness’ as being the going up steps that take you closer to being the best person you can be.
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I like that, Carolyn 🙂
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