“The only thing that really matters in life are your relationships to other people.”  George Vaillant

What is your reaction to the statement made in today’s title?  True or not?  Why?

Happy is the person who finds wisdom and gains understanding.  (Prov. 3:13; NLT)

Last Monday I bookmarked an article from The Atlantic titled “What Makes Us Happy?”  If you’re one of our long time readers, you will recall that I have a fascination for the way various people pursue happiness.  This article (today’ link of the day) was pretty long, so I set it aside for some good Sunday afternoon reading.

The article is about a 70+ year old (and still running) longitudinal study on happiness based on following 268 Harvard students (chosen from the classes of ‘42, ‘43, and ‘44) throughout their lives.  ”From their days of bull sessions in Cambridge to their active duty in World War II, through marriages and divorces, professional advancement and collapse—and now well into retirement—the men have submitted to regular medical exams, taken psychological tests, returned questionnaires, and sat for interviews.”

BTW, I had to look up the term longitudinal study myself, as I wasn’t sure of its meaning.  Wikipedia explains it thusly: “A longitudinal study is a correlational research study that involves repeated observations of the same items over long periods of time — often many decades. It is a type of observational study. Longitudinal studies are often used in psychology to study developmental trends across the life span.”

As I said earlier, the article is a long read, and I’m not sure that even after reading it there is any revealing information about happiness which can be attributed to such a gargantuan study.  However, the article is interesting, and in addition giving an overview of the history of the study, it focuses mostly on the life of George Vaillant, the curator of the study for the last 42 years.  Frankly, I don’t recommend you read the article in its entirety, but do encourage you to click the link below and watch the almost 7-minute video on the article’s first page.

In that video, largely the musings of Vaillant, he makes several interesting observations about happiness.  My favorite is “The job [life] isn’t conforming, it isn’t keeping up with the Jones…it is playing, and working, and loving.  And loving is probably the most important.  Happiness is love.”

Enjoy the video, and choose to make the upcoming week one of your best in memory.  It is your choice, you know.  You can choose to be happy.  Try it…you’ll like it!!!

Prayer Power
Father, this article shows rather clearly that happiness is more of a state of mind, a decision, than it is circumstantial.  We rejoice that You have promised to never leave us nor forsake us — allowing us to choose to see the good in every circumstance that we encounter.

Link of the Day
What Makes Us Happy?

Blessings on you as you purpose to have a happy week.