Searching for Something

It seems like everyone I know is searching for something. A better job, a better home, a better car, a better diet, a better  life. But I think that what everyone is really searching for, is happiness. So why is happiness so elusive?

Maybe this story will help. When I first started dating my wife, I was coming out of a long- term marriage that wasn’t ever very good. We were simply two different people who didn’t relate to each other well at all. I always felt lonely and sad, which as a positive person went totally against my nature. I don’t know why it took me so long to figure out that my unhappiness was rooted in my marriage, but it probably had to do with ignorance and fear. But somehow, I got the courage and the common sense to finally move on… and that’s when I finally found happiness!

When we first met, I wasn’t looking for a girlfriend, but something attracted me to her right away. I remember her smile being so genuine and how she made me smile back. I hadn’t dated in over 17 years, so it was really scary for me, but Debby had a certain spark that really got my heart racing. It seemed like she was perfect for me, but I kept thinking there is now way that I could be that lucky.

A few months into dating, we decided to go to a new Chinese Restaurant that neither one of us had ever tried before. It was called “Good Luck Restaurant”, which looking back was a bit prophetic. The only problem was that the restaurant was closing when we got there. But we were really hungry so I asked the lady at the counter if she had any food already made we could take to go. She seemed upset with me and was probably tired from a long day, but she agreed to sell us some left-over chow mein. When I checked the bag, I noticed there weren’t any fortune cookies, so I asked about it, and oh man, she flipped out. “So, you want cookies too!!!” She reached behind her, grabbed a full bag of fortune cookies that wasn’t even opened yet, and tossed them at me yelling, “Get out now!”

It was a bit embarrassing, but we laughed it off and gladly took our 25 fortune cookies out the door with us. We found a table outside and after chowing down, we each picked a fortune cookie to open. Mine said, “Stop searching forever, happiness is just next to you.” I immediately looked at Debby sitting next to me and discovered her fortune cookie said exactly the same thing! At that point we both laughed and figured that every cookie must be the same. But incredibly, there were no other cookies that had that same saying. In fact, every cookie had a unique saying except for the first two that we opened. We kind of just stared into each other’s eyes after that, not really knowing what to say, but definitely knowing that something special was happening between us.

Falling in love and being loved back would be my definition of finding happiness. But I didn’t find it because I was searching for it…I found it because I paid attention to the people who were right in front of me!

We tend to forget that happiness doesn’t come as a result of getting something we don’t have, 

but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.  

~ Frederick Keonig