Happiness Is A Choice
人生无常，悲欢离合，成功失败，在所难免。有人在顺境中却不如意，有人却在逆境中找寻快乐和生命的意义。快乐可遇不可求，当你偶遇快乐，用心体会，用心把握，那些快乐便是长久的。
Every day, it seems, we’re flooded with pop-psych advice abouthappiness. The relentless message is that there’s something we’re supposed to do behappy—make the right choices, or have the right set of beliefs about ourselves. Our FoundingFathers even wrote the pursuit of happiness into The Declaration of Independence.
每天，关于如何快乐的各种建议犹如洪水，连绵不绝。这些毫无感情的建议无非是说，我们为了快乐应有所作为——正确地选择或者建立正确的自我观念。我们的开国国父甚至将追求快乐写入《独立宣言》。
Coupled with this is the notion that happiness is a permanent condition. If we’re not joyful all thetime, we conclude there’s a problem.
与此相对应的理念便是“快乐是长久的状态”。如果我们从来都没有快乐过，那么我们的生活一定出了问题。
Yet what most people experience is not a permanent state of happiness. It is something moreordinary, a mixture of what essayist Hugh Prather once called “unsolved problems, ambiguousvictories and vague defeats—with few moments of clear peace.”
然而大多数人不曾体验过永久的快乐。取而代之的是一种更为平常的，就像散文家休·普拉瑟所谓的混合情感：“没有解决的问题，模糊不清的成败，以及内心转瞬即逝的平和。”
Maybe you wouldn’t say yesterday was a happy day, because you had a misunderstanding withyour boss. But weren’t there moments of happiness, moments of clear peace? Now that you thinkabout it, wasn’t there a letter from an old friend, or a stranger who asked where you got such agreat haircut? You remember having a bad day, yet those good moments occurred.
因为和老板有所误会，你也许会说自己昨天很不快乐。但真的没有快乐的时刻吗?没有那内心平和的瞬间吗?现在好好想想，是否收到故友的来信?是否有位陌生人对你漂亮的发型大加赞赏，向你打听在哪做的?你记得的是那不愉快的一天，然而那些美好时刻也在闪现。
Happiness is like a visitor, a genial, exotic Aunt Tilly who turns up when you least expect her, ordersan extravagant round of drinks and then disappears, trailing a lingering scent of gardenias. Youcan’t command her appearance; you can only appreciate her when she does show up. And youcan’t force happiness to happen—but you can make sure you are aware of it when it does.
快乐似访客，如来自他乡、和蔼可亲的迪莉大婶，总在你最不期翼间来访，畅饮一巡佳酿，然后消失无踪，徒留挥之不去的栀子花香。你无法使其招之即来，只能在它惊鸿一现时，尽情体会。快乐无法强求，但一旦降临，你要确信自己有所体察。
While you’re walking home with a head full of problems, try to notice the sun set the windows ofthe city on fire. Listen to the shouts of kids playing basketball in the fading light, and feel yourspirits rise, just from having paid attention.
当你满腹心事，徒步归家时，试着去看看落日照射在玻璃窗上，映出火一般燃烧的城市。听听余晖渐尽中孩子们打篮球时的喊叫，你会觉得自己情绪高涨，而这只因为你转移了注意力。
Happiness is an attitude, not a condition. It’s cleaning the Venetian blinds while listening to an aria,or spending a pleasant hour organizing your closet. Happiness is your family assembled at dinner.It’s in the present, not in the distant promise of a “someday when…” How much luckier weare—and how much more happiness we experience—if we can fall in love with the life we’re living.
快乐是种态度、而不是某种状态。这种态度在于你清洗百叶窗时听着咏叹调，或收拾衣厨时依然兴致勃勃。快乐是一家人围坐桌旁共进晚餐。快乐就在眼前，而不是在某个遥远的承诺：“等我们有时间……”只要我们深爱正在经历的人生，便会拥有更多的幸运，也会体验更多的快乐。
Happiness is a choice. Reach out for it at the moment it appears, like a balloon drifting seaward in abright blue sky.
快乐是一种选择。快乐像一只气球，在明媚的蓝天下向着大海飘去，当快乐来临，你要伸出手去，将它留在心中。
