What Makes You Happy?

What Makes You Happy?

“Happiness isn’t a place you need to get to;
Happiness is where you are
when nothing can get to you.”
~ Lori Gosselin

Happiness is something I’ve long thought about.  I’m not sure why; I’ve been a fairly content person all my life.  I wrote a book about happiness, and how to heal the things that stand in the way of our happiness.

Today while cleaning up I found a journal I started when my kids were small, a book I had dubbed “Quotable Quotes”. From the moment Natasha and Alex started to speak, I collected their words and committed them to the pages of this book.

In this book, I found memories I would have lost had I not taken the time to write them down.  Reading the entries was like peering through a window into the past.  I remembered what it was like when the kids were small; bathed and pajamaed, or messy at the kitchen table, or bundled up to play in the snow.  It helped me to see the world the way I saw it then, through the eyes of my children.

Once, when he was six years old, Alex came to me visibly upset.  This was our conversation.

Alex: “The thing I wanted to say is this; it’s going to be hard for me to find someone to marry.”
Lori: “Why Alex?”
Alex: “Someone nice, like you.”

That makes me happy.

But the quote that inspired this post was something Alex said when he was seven years old.  It was January of 1996 when I posed this question to him as I was tucking him into bed.

Lori: “What makes you happy?”
Alex: “Me and God.”
Lori: Some people think things make them happy, or people. Why do you think that is?”
Alex: “Because some people have a hard time not giving their power away.”

I swear; he was seven years old!  Alex was always an old soul.

Funny thing about memories; you can take them with you to that place where nothing can get to you, that happy place within, to snuggle up with during the most trying of times.  That’s personal power!

Photo: Lori Gosselin

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About The Author


I have always loved writing and community building. I’ve written a book about healing and happiness, The Happy Place, as well as a Community Building book, Sounding the Drum: Community Building in the Digital Age,both available at any Amazon store. I’ve been through life changes that I thought were the end of my world, but I’m still here. You never know what will happen next. Isn’t that what makes life interesting?