C'mon, get happy

No, this isn't a tribute to the Partridge Family -- sorry to disappoint.

This is a tribute to my current MUST READ: "eat, pray, love."

If you haven't read this book, I HIGHLY recommend it. If you have, then you already know what I'm talkin' about! Here's a very brief plot synopsis to set the stage for the following excerpt:

A 30-something year old woman, Liz Gilbert, finds herself in a pool of tears and snot on her bathroom floor after a difficult break-up and a deep sense of hopelessness and lack of direction. In the midst of her pain she reaches out to the Universal Divine and believes she is directed to take a year off and search for meaning and happiness. She goes to Italy, India and Indonesia. The rest of the memoir is definitely a page-turner.

Teachings about happiness that Liz got from her guru while in India:

"People universally tend to think that happiness is a stroke of luck, something that will maybe descend upon you like fine weather if you're fortunate enough. But that's now how happiness works.

Happiness is the consequence of personal effort.
You fight for it,
strive for it,
insist upon it, and
sometimes even travel around the world looking for it.

You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings.

And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it, you must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it. If you don't, you will leak away your innate contentment.

It's easy enough to pray when you're in distress but continuing to pray even when your crisis has passed is like a sealing process, helping your soul hold tight to its good attainments."