Many people today assume that happiness implies the absence of suffering and struggle, as if a life of meaning, service to others or tormented but creative accomplishment is not also a happy life. Another misconception is that happiness must be sought and acquired, as if it were something special that is apart from ordinary, everyday life. It must be attained by fulfilling some  requirement – perhaps by making more money or finding a new relationship – or by following some prescribed method or program of self-improvement. But happiness is right before our eyes, immediately available to us if we surrender to what this very moment offers, to what fate has put on our table right now. The happiness complex consists of the hope that happiness will come, if only….

Michael Gellert, The Way of the Small