Happiness is...

Is what I am not sure, but the ubiquitous "they" assure me that "it is" Personally I think that happiness is being satisfied with what you have. I look around me, on this the last working day of the year 2006 and I am content, not wealthy, not particularly healthy but content.

My children are pursuing their own lives, with their own families, they don't want to come live with me, so life is good.

I was married for either 21 or 29 years depending on whether you count to the day the ex and I separated or the day we actually got divorced. Either way I have lived alone now for almost twenty years, ever since I moved out.

In that time I have lived in Waltham, MA, Yorktown, VA, Alexandria, VA, Tysons Corner, VA, Huntsville, AL, Chicago, IL, Grand Rapids, MI, Little Rock, AR, Baltimore, MD, Miami Beach, FL, and now Bristow, VA.

Most of the time, I lived in hotels. I almost never became friendly with my neighbors. Most time I never even met them. During that time, I worked for a large number of companies, and yet with all the people I met and worked with, I barely remember any of them, and have kept in touch with none of them. In fact I barely remember any of the people I worked with over the course of my working life (some 45 years).

I have lived at my present location for ten years, and and I know about fifteen people by name, and recognize the faces of maybe twenty more. I am not sure what that says about me other than I have a poor memory for names and faces.

Now that I live in Bristow and have put down roots of a sort I realize that some people, myself included, were never meant to live with other people. People like myself hate to share their toys and love to do what they want, when they want. We are loners, not hermits, but loners.

My home is Spartan, my diet is what some would call monotonous, and I am happy. I watch people around me acquire things, and I remember when I did the same thing. I have lost most of that acquisitiveness, and frankly don't miss it.

All of which means that I think that, other than for food, I have finished my shopping for a while.