when the river run dry

Happiness is...

HAPPINESS is like a crystal,
Fair and exquisite and clear,
Broken in a million pieces,
Shattered, scattered far and near.
Now and then along life’s pathway,
Lo! some shining fragments fall;
But there are so many pieces
No one ever finds them all.

You may find a bit of beauty,
Or an honest share of wealth,
While another just beside you
Gathers honor, love or health.
Vain to choose or grasp unduly,
Broken is the perfect ball;
And there are so many pieces
No one ever finds them all.
Yet the wise as on they journey
Treasure every fragment clear,
Fit them as they may together,
Imaging the shattered sphere,
Learning ever to be thankful,
Though their share of it is small;
For it has so many pieces
No one ever finds them all.

PRISCILLA LEONARD

As I read this poem I came to wonder of what makes me happy. I sometimes asked myself if I wanted to be happy. I imagine happiness not as a crystal ball like Priscilla Leonard wrote about it but a river. A river that soon would run dry, a river that you don't know if drinking its water may soon poison your body or quench your thirst. Just like some rivers they are not clean and dirty, some offer cold water and can bring refreshment.

I have known other people who are scared of happiness too. Its not only me who is afraid of it then, I thought. Most of us have the same reason, after happiness usually comes sorrow. Every time there is something good that comes into my life, I tried to imagine something sad so that I cannot fully give in of what happiness offers. I sometimes is so scared that thinking that what will be the price that I have to pay for this kind of happiness. I believe that mostly everything has its price. What if that happiness is not for me and is meant for someone? What if I claimed something that is not mine? Or what if I get used to being happy and sooner the river run dry and has nothing left?