How Do We Feel Happy?

The little girl was running around the playground with a big smile and outstretched arms. She was dancing, singing, and jumping all over the place. She savored the moment as she experienced an intense joy, like she just had been revived from death and got a second chance to explore the world. Her parents let her go to the playground while they were watching her from the car by the park. That day was probably the only day in a month’s time where they had taken her to enjoy the park. She was the first person to come after me. I was alone, but she never felt like she was alone. She ignored me and played with all the monkey bars at the playground as it is a new world to explore. She glided at the jungle gym, hung on the overhead ladder, and slid down through the slides. She kept doing those things for some time. She approached a two meter-high curve that supported the two swings. She sat on one of the swings and started to swing. Soon, she swung more than a meter above the ground at a notable speed. She is just a little girl with a long hair, blue eyes, blue shirt, blue short, white shoes, but her passion was ready to voyage the Pacific Ocean.

She left after a half an hour of playing under that sunny, cloudless sky. The wind blew incredibly fast and shifted the cloud into different dimension out of the city. The sun was high, but the breeze blew between my head and my ears frequently. I was sitting on a bench facing the playground and stared to the trace of image that the girl left. I was looking for a happiness that long had been gone. I sat on the swing that the girl just played with, hoping to find the same happiness that she so enjoyed. I swung several times and ended up hurting my pelvis and thighs because the swing seat is too small for me. I hung myself under the overhead ladder with my knees bent upward, but ended up hurting my post-surgery wrist. I did not get the joy that the playground had shared to the girl. I realized that as we grow older, we forget how to feel happy the way we used to as a kid. When I was a child, I liked playing racing cars toys. I assembled the parts myself and registered the car for competition. I could never feel happier than that. As I grew up, my racing cars were replaced by a bike and a billiard table. I believe that in my 50s I won’t even play with a bike and a billiard table anymore. I will find something else to enjoy and make me happy.
People do different things to feel the sensation of happiness. They gain happiness through playing sports, working out, teaching, hiking, singing, or even eating. However, this world is not the right place to experience an absolute happiness. The happiness will soon fade away as soon as boredom swoops in. I bought a half gallon of my favorite ice cream and planned to eat it up as soon as I arrived home. I opened the lid and took the first scoop. It was the best scoop ever. The frozen Choco chip melted in my mouth and the vanilla cream danced on the tip of my tongue. I took the second scoop and put it into my mouth again. It was still very good, but the vanilla was not dancing anymore. I took the third scoop and it was just a scoop of ice cream that I just bought, better eat it than nothing. I closed the lid and put it back in the freezer just like the little girl who enjoyed playing at the playground. She left after a half an hour. Although she really liked playing there, she might be thinking that it was not worth it to play any longer. She would think another time when their parents would bring her again to the park. She embraced the sensation of waiting to get her happiness. Sometimes, we can feel happiness only if it comes in a short time and in an interval of time. We feel happy because we remember that doing such thing is fun and we can’t wait to do it again.
There are a lot of limitations as to what humans feel about absolute happiness. We tend to feel bored so fast. We tend to get tired so fast. We can only feel the happiness in a short amount of time. As a Moslem, I believe that there is another life after death. We will be living in a place where boredom and tiredness can never get in. A place when I eat a cup of ice cream and it tastes different on every scoop while the ice cream is never used up regardless of how many scoops I have eaten.