[originaltext] When we think about happiness, we usually think of something

When we think about happiness, we usually think of something extraordinary, a feeling of sheer delight, and those feelings seem to get rarer the older we get.
    For a child, happiness has a magical quality. I remember making hide-outs in newly cut hay, playing cops and robbers in the woods, getting a speaking part in the school play. Of course, kids also experience lows, but their delight at such peaks of pleasure as winning a race or getting a new bike is unreserved.
    In the teenage years the concept of happiness changes. Suddenly it is conditional on such things as excitement, love, popularity and whether that red spot will clear up before party night. I can still feel the agony of not being invited to a party that almost everyone else was going to. But I also recall the details of being invited at another event to dance with a John Travolta look-alike.
    In adulthood the things that bring profound joy—birth, love, marriage—also bring responsibility and the risk of loss.      Love may not last, sex is not always good, loved ones die. For adults, happiness is complicated.
    While happiness may be complex for us, the solution is the same. Happiness is not about what happens to us, it is about how we perceive what happens to us. It is the knack of finding a positive for every negative, and viewing a setback as a challenge. It is not wishing for what we do not have, but enjoying what we do possess.