The eternal optimist

Happiness is a stable state and almost sounds unreal given how time moves. How then does a country become the happiest with 33 measures to define it?

The fabric of culture with religious and spiritual teachings can create an unwavering internal faith. External beliefs that promote eternal optimism at the core are hard to ignore. Superstitions, or maybe beliefs, range from good omens seen in a full rainbow, norms followed to select a day to attend to the soul of the departed or the respect endowed on the other with every gesture being a sign of reciprocity. There is a running thread of a sense of calm and order to define how life is to be lived.

If there is any sense of uncertainty or doubt, it is allayed by chanting mantras for protection and compassion which envelope you against cold winds of doubt. When lost, a door opens to a school of teaching to remind one of the ways of life. A foundation laid in basic healthcare and education systems and a civic system which inculcates order, removes the noise and superfluous hustle, leaving time to focus on a higher level in the hierarchy of needs.

But the belief today is built on a foundation of observing, living and breathing suffering, having broken out of the shackles of comfort which dull the mind. To transcend and rise above it all is the path to ultimate happiness. The failures of yesterday build a roadmap towards actualization when given the requisite time and space to bloom beyond the autumn of misery.

The realist in me has taken a turn once again, to be an eternal optimist, to truly believe that the world is conspiring for the best and to find inner faith in my values, principles and core beliefs. The world cannot exist within me but I can be within.