The girl snuggles her head on his chest, lying on the quilt drunk
On laughter and love,
The festival music booms and he beams at her,
This is happiness.

The family sets up lawn chairs on a large field,
It is the fourth of July,
They settle in and fireworks paint the sky with explosions and noise.
This is happiness.

The puppy is let outside on a January day,
It burrows its snout into a pile of white fluff for the first time ever,
Tail wagging, it chases a tightly packed snowball heaved across the yard,
This is happiness.

The child is blindfolded and handed a rusty metal baseball bat with a dent in the sweet spot,
He is guided over to the piñata by the worn hands of his grandfather on his shoulders,
He swings two times and then candy falls for the awaiting grabby little fingers,
This is happiness.

The father sits in the bleachers at his teenage son’s baseball game,
He watches his son hit a shot over the right field wall,
Oozing pride, the father screams “That’s my boy!” and claps ferociously as his son rounds the bases,
This is happiness.

The mother is handed her child,
She looks into his innocent newborn eyes,
And a new life long loving bond is formed between the two of them,
This is happiness.

Happiness isn’t some overarching general idea,
Happiness lives in the everyday things, in the appreciation of life,
Happiness is made up of the moments,
This is happiness.