A Happiness Dare, and conversation through Dictionary definition



Kinwomen DEC 2018 Blog Images (1)

“I think to Live- may be a bliss

To those who dare to try”

Emily Dickinson

 

happiness
/ˈhapɪnəs/
Noun. the state of being happy.

Is it a state? Is ‘Happy’ a place where we arrive? A destination?

Contentment, pleasure, contentedness. Are they just synonyms, or actions?

Is satisfaction, cheerfulness, cheeriness, merriment, a list, or a place?

Spaces where one chooses to dwell?

Merriness, gaiety and joy. Are they just for special occasions?

Joyfulness, joyousness, joviality. Jollity, jolliness, glee. Are they a place I can be?

Blitheness, carefreeness, gladness. A movie perhaps…

Delight, good spirits, high spirits – maybe on a good day?

Light-heartedness, good cheer, well-being – after a yoga.

Enjoyment, Felicity; exuberance – bleary Christmas morning smiles?

Exhilaration, elation, ecstasy.

Delirium, jubilation, rapture.

Bliss, blissfulness, euphoria. Beatitude.

Transports of delight. Heaven, paradise, cloud nine;

Humorousdelectation; rarejouissance
“her eyes shone with happiness”

Happiness.

Perhaps it’s found where we look, in what we read, the words we speak, the questions we ask.

What if we write the words, read them aloud; joy and merriness, delirium and rarejouissance.

I dare you. I dare you to say rarejouissance, without smiling.

Happiness.

It’s a dare and a walk and a journey, all at the same time.

It’s rarejouissance.

 


About Joni Leimgruber

Joni lives just outside Sydney in the beautiful Hawkesbury region with her three children. Having journeyed through depression, marriage breakdown and some of the other curve balls life can throw, she is passionate about cheering others on and encouraging them to embrace themselves and their story. She is terrible at telling jokes and regularly comes down with foot-in-mouth disease while blushing profusely. Joni writes to encourage other single mums on Instagram at @singlemumsthriving.