Key Take-Aways from “The Cost of Always Looking for Happiness”:

  • Joy lives within a person; happiness comes from the outside and may be momentary;
  • Joy is connected to contentment and fulfillment;
  • Joy is when you feel most alive;
  • “Joy is the most infallible sign of the presence of God” (French philosopher and priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin);
  • Don’t stop your story at the point where you’re experiencing pain and disappointment (Brenda Schlender):  life must be lived going forward but only understood looking backward.
  • Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow (Melody Beattie)