A wonderful essay by author and naturalist Donald Culross Peattie. Found in "A New Treasury of Words to Live By - selected and interpreted by nineity eminent men and women", edited by William Nichols. Published in 1956 by Simon and Schuster.
"Where Happiness Begins"
"There is no duty we underrate so much as the duty of being happy."
Robert Louis Stevenson
Now there's a bit of morality as manly as it is smiling! I never did become convinced of what I was so smugly told in childhood: "Be good and you will be happy." Whereas I am quite sure that if you are happy you will be good.
People who generate this inner sunshine make life pleasanter for those around them. Their impulses lead to right action; their thoughts are usually true. They have their roots in some deep, shining faith.
Now, anyone can be in good spirits when the luck is running his way. But happiness is not always the result of fortune. It is frequently a virtue, and a brave one. Happiness comes of the grace to accept life gratefully and make the most of the best of it.
That isn't always easy, or R.L.S. would not elsewhere have spoken of his "great TASK of happiness." Very naturally we all resent those tiresome Pollyannas who foist their cheerfulness upon us regardless of our fate and feelings. Only the whiners and the grumblers are harder to bear with. And those spoiled children of privilege who waste the joys they have by not knowing they have them.
But look around you at some of the others! Every day I meet them, men and women whom I know to have such trials or disappointments or poverty of opportunity that I marvel at their faces. They are not only brave; they are getting some joy out of life. Such people, I think, improve the climate of our world. They put heart in others to shoulder gallantly the great duty of happiness.
So, lifting one another's spirit, we can get through even our times of trouble. We will not miss the chances of pleasure in a sunset or the face of a friend at the door. And to those faithful in this daily duty of happiness may a rewarding Providence vouchsafe many an unexpected moment of real delight!
