"Happiness grows at our own firesides, and is not to be picked in a stranger’s garden."
*~Douglas Jerrod~*

his quotation carries the same message as Sometimes we "the grass always looks greener on the other side." look at what some one else has, whether it’s a house, car, husband, wife, education, money, popularity, position or good looks, and think that if we had what the other person has, we too would be happy. We assume that the other person is happy. Chances are they are not, because they may feel that they are lacking some "essential" thing that would complete their happiness.

Few people have discovered the source of happiness. For most, happiness is an elusive lady, akin to luck and fate. Remember the characters in the Wiz who traveled far looking for courage, intelligence, a heart, and even home. In the end, they discovered that the things they sought were within them already, and they only had to recognize them and cultivate them, in order to enjoy them.

So too, happiness lies within you and springs from things within your own heart and mind, and not outside of yourself. No one else can "make you happy." They can only contribute to your happiness. Conversely, no one can make you unhappy. You choose how you will react to every situation. You can choose to be happy, in spite of appearances to the contrary.

Material things, and even other people, do not come with a guarantee of happiness. That is something you have to cultivate on your own, by knowing who you are, what is your purpose in life, and how you can contribute to the quality of life while you’re on the Earth.

Kamau is the author of Mental Morsels For the Soul, a collection of inspiring quotations.