Jack’s Winning Words 10/8/14
“Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.”  (Wayne Dyer)  Have you ever watched a Dyer lecture on TV?  His talk seems to make sense.  What is it that makes you happy?  Oriole fans were happy; Detroit fans were not.  What makes you happy?  In the movie, “The Jerk,” Steve Martin needs his dog to make him happy.  But the dog growls at him and runs away.  Sometimes the happiness we seek is not the happiness we need.    ;-)  Jack

FROM FACEBOOK LIZ:  Like====JACK:  Evidently you're happy when you respond...Like.

FROM CK IN MICHGAN:  Funny I started reading Wayne Dyers book " I can see clearly now" recently. Yes I have seen him on PBS. The Zen Master makes it seem so simple. Maybe it really is simple??====JACK:  There's a hymn verse..."If your faith were but more simple, We should take Him at His Word; And out lives would be all sunshine  In the presence of the Lord."  Sometimes I think that we complicate our relationship with God.  God knows us and cares for us.

FROM MICHIZONA RAY:  I think of "happiness" as a choice and a state of being; "being happy". Often confused, "pleasure" comes from what we "do". Pleasure comes and goes depending on the activity (like eating ice cream). Pleasure ends shortly after the bowl is emptied. Happiness is up to us and our choice to "be happy". Hence for me, nothing "makes" me happy. I can lose a game and be happy; but admittedly, it is very difficult to choose happiness when suffering is "in your face". When people extend themselves while I am suffering, I think I experience happiness at the same time for their gift they give me.====JACK:  It's a matter of semantics.  We each define happiness and pleasure as it affects us.  Many linguists agree with you...that there is a difference.  The hoi poloi probably don't see the difference.  Your comments are well received.

FROM SBP IN FLORIDA:  I'm with Wayne Dyer even though I have never read or seen him. To me, happiness is an adult's choice which is ,at times, greatly elevated and at others a comfortable presence. I've been with others who are determined to be unhappy .....and it works for them. Me, I don't seek to be happy, I am. I thank the Lord. And I "thank you" for the awareness raising WW. ====JACK:  I can't see myself as "jumping around" happy...like a dog anticipating food.  But I think an adult happiness is a feeling of "at ease"...sort of like what Robert Browning wrote: "God's in his heaven, and all's right with the world."

FROM MOLINER JT:  And do not forget us Cardinal fans!====JACK:  Not so fast...The Giants are waiting.

FROM TW IN MICHIGAN:  So true. That is how I try to live my life. I love your quotes.