"We must bring about a revolution in our way of living our everyday lives, because our happiness, our lives, are within ourselves."
~Thich Nhat Hanh

" Sometimes simply slowing down, resting and tuning in to the Self are all you need to do to have happiness, peace and beauty reveal themselves to you. " 
~Ingrid Goff-Maidoff

"Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking." ~ Marcus Aurelius

"The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, nor worry about the future, but to live the present moment wisely and earnestly." 
~ Buddha

"To fill the hour - that is happiness; to fill the hour, and leave no crevice for repentance or an approval." 
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Man is unhappy because he doesn't know he's happy." 
~Kirilov in Fyodor Dostoyevsky's The Possessed

"Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, won, or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude." 

 ~Denis Waitley

“Yes, you can focus on the darkness, it’s there, and you can focus on light. But one will bring you joy and one will bring you pain. It’s your choice.” 
— RuPaul

Lightning splits the sky over downtown Los Angeles on Saturday, July 18, 2015.

(Harry Chandler / For the Times)

 

Summer storm in Los Angeles! It rained all day here, but was 80 degrees out. Tropical Cyclone Dolores brought us island weather today and it was so lovely.

 

Kevin Smith

I'M NOT HAPPY...
I've been around 44 years now, and I've been a round boy for most of those years as well. I always imagined thinner people were happier than me - but after losing 80 pounds, I can't say that I'm any happier than I was as a fat-ass. I'm not complaining, mind you: I just imagined I'd feel differently. I imagined I'd know a different kind of happiness than I'd never known before. Instead, I wound up learning what I consider to be the Secret of Happiness.

As an American, I was raised to believe I was entitled to 100% happiness, all day every day, until I died. But in our Declaration of Independence, we’re granted only the PURSUIT of happiness -
not actual happiness. The founders of this country were smart not to promise the tired, the poor and the huddled masses yearning to breathe free too much of a good thing.
The good news is that the pursuit of happiness is way better than being happy any day. The irony is that actual happiness blasts us across our faces, necks and chests all the time - but we’re so busy chasing the elusive notion of what happiness is to us at that moment, we tend to overlook the authentic bliss we create for ourselves and others in the process of simply trying to be happy. And by the time we realize these were, in fact, moments of happiness, it's too late: those moments are now memories.
Happiness can't be bottled. It can't be smoked, swallowed, shot or ejaculated. And there is no end game: you never cross the finish line and are suddenly happy. Even when all your wildest dreams come true, you still pursue happiness.
Thankfully, human beings are at their happiest when they feel they're at their most productive. So the only real happiness is the pursuit of happiness. When we chase happy, we feel our best. Life is about the journey, not the destination - so while the idea of happiness sounds great, it’s actually the pursuit of happiness that provides the most contentment. And in that pursuit, we are ultimately at our happiest.
Forgive my stoner ramblings and sorry for stating the obvious. But sometimes, you just wanna remind people they've already won.

"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."  —Mahatma Gandhi