What is Happiness?

Is happiness the blissful ignorance we feel as a child,
Nestled on the breast that can make or break you,
Completely oblivious to the pain one could inflict upon another,
Unknowing of all those horrible things –
Dark…
Awful…
Traumatic…
– The freedom to playfully run around aimlessly?
Is happiness anything but ordinary?
Is happiness only a child’s emotion?

Perhaps happiness is the light at the end of the tunnel.
Maybe it’s felt after all the realizations and epiphanies,
After all the sorrow in response to external pain
As you escape the arms of your childhood –
The soft pillow repelling the monster under the bed…
The cotton candy rush before the stomach ache…
The ice cream-filled dreams…
– All torn asunder.
Raging thunder,
Body stretched beyond its limits;
Mind palliated on the walls you guard yourself with the older you get.
Is happiness the effect following the cause of the drastic mistakes you made,
The lessons you learned?
Is happiness coming to terms with accepting the loss,
The trauma and its memories set on repeat,
The weaknesses exposed?
Is happiness a weight lifted off your shoulders,
Forgiving your aggressor,
Grateful for a fate never replicating Atlas’s eternal curse?
Is it the first breath after darkness subsides,
And all that remains is contention?
Is happiness… love found in a hopeless place?
Is happiness anything but ordinary?
Is it only an adult emotion?

What is happiness?
Fleeting spurts of joy
Greater than the sum of its parts –
Constant…
Spontaneous…
Sporadic…?
The sensation you feel when something finally goes your way?
Is it a sense of independence,
Knowing you no longer need to rely on anyone else for your own survival?
When all that we strive for are superficial
For they are the only certain things?
Is happiness anything but ordinary?
Is it only an authentic emotion?

Is it only obtainable in ultimate reality?
Is it only felt after you pass this test of life with flying colors?
Is happiness being gentle and kind against all odds
In a world that wasn’t designed to harbor any permanent solutions?
Does being dead on the inside count for anything at all?
Is happiness only a cadaver’s emotion?

Can anyone obtain happiness?
Is it up for grabs?
First come first serve basis
Or are only the lucky ones destined to be happy?
Can some be impervious to happiness?
Is it an oasis discovered after wandering through the desert all alone,
Dehydrated to near death?
Is loneliness the opposite of happiness
Or is it one and the same?
What is happiness?
Is it anything but ordinary?
Can I be happy?