Happiness

Happy are those who have learned that they shouldn't work at purchasing others' approval.

Happier still are those who don't need to work at purchasing their own.

Yes, it's banal. The sort of trivial wisdom that one finds on a bumper sticker (in type too small to be read unless you can stand near the vehicle in a parking lot). But I take a certain level of comfort in it, even as I struggle to reach it.

Such is the problem with seeking wisdom. It really is often the antithesis of everything we have learned in our lives. I remember how excited I was when I first really listened to the whispering, serpentine, polyphonic words of my Inner Critic and realized: "I know those voices." But that realization made it all the harder when I found that even that knowledge couldn't stop me from trying to placate them.

But I know the way. All I have to do is climb the mountain. Easy.