Design your happiness

Let me begin by saying that I did not start off searching for happiness. I thought happiness lay in big events: a promotion at work, a mind-blowing job offer, high scores in my French exam, a vacation in Las Vegas. Little did I know, then, that happiness could be found in discovering a long-forgotten tune, an old recipe that turned out perfect, a church with sunbeams streaming through the skylight, a musty library with leather-bound tomes or a memorable post that Facebook prompted me to remember. It took me a long while to understand that happiness could be designed, if I looked for it in the right places. Where it began  My quest for different kinds of happiness began during the months of the pandemic lockdown when long hours turned into lonely days with little else to do than finding ways to make the days go by and trying to stay safe.  T he novelty of watching Netflix after work and during lunch hours had long waned, the relief at not having to brave the traffic to go ...