Happy is a point of view. A perspective. An attitude. A way of seeing what we look at. It is what we do with what we are handed. It starts with not taking anything more seriously than it deserves. And it moves into doing what is called for in each situation as it arises, when, where and how it is called for, and letting that be that. As Lao Tzu said 500 years before Jesus said, “Be like the birds of the air and the lilies of the field,” “Do your work and step back, let nature take its course.”
Striving to force our way on, through, in the world… Hammering, banging, pushing, shoving to get what we want doesn’t want the way we think it will.
See what’s what and doing what can be done about it, and letting that be that is the way of the natural world. Streams flowing to the sea sometimes dry up and have to wait for the rain to fall and fill its course with enough water to proceed along its way to its eventual destination. We have to wait for what is needed to have what it takes, or change what we want. And that means squaring ourselves up with how things are, doing what is called for and letting that be that, in a “Here we are, now what?” kind of way.
Speaking of ways, the way to square ourselves up with what’s what is the way of emptiness, stillness, silence and solitude. Sitting and waiting for “now what” to become clear, that we might do what is called for in ways appropriate to the occasion throughout what remains of the time left for living.
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 