To quote the legendary crooner Al Green, love and happiness, “sometimes it can make you do right or make you do wrong.” Admittedly, having been on both sides of this proverbial coin a time or two over the years, I have to agree.

Still, to understand the dynamics of love and happiness, perhaps we should look at each entity separately. I began by asking people I know to define what love means to them and as you might imagined I got many different descriptions. For many, love is that feeling that we get when we first spot the object of our affection. Our hearts race and we get all flustered. Let that same person touch us or kiss us and it is like – wow.

Stanza Four of Love and Happiness declares, “Love and happiness will make you come home early (from a night on the town), or make you stay out all night long.” Well, too many nights of the latter and mostly likely a few folks are well on their way to Divorce Court. But I digress.

Granted, there are different kinds of love. There’s the love that we feel for our parents, our children and our BFFs (Best Friends Forever). Okay I admit it. I only recently learned what BFF meant. Finally there is the love we feel for Petunia or Fluffy our four-legged friends. Sadly however, some people mistake love for simple physical attraction or just plain lust.

Happiness too, often means different things to different folks. According to Al (Green) “happiness is when you really feel good with somebody.”  Meaning, we simply enjoy being with that special someone, no matter the activity. For others, happiness means doing things they enjoy. 

For example, I am happiest when I am writing my books and columns. I am happiest when my spouse is happy and healthy. I am happy when I have a Saturday morning off with no errands to run or no place to be. Those rare times I’ll make a pot of coffee and settle on my sun porch to watch the brilliant Cardinals, Blue Jays and the frisky squirrels that call my back yard home. Lastly, I am happiest when I’m in a room surrounded by shoes in colors and styles galore – in a size eight.

Alas, happiness can’t be forced. Who doesn’t know someone who tries too hard to appear happy? They laugh too loud at parties, or always seem to be the life of the party. For some odd reason these folks feel like they must put on this ‘front’. Perhaps it is so that others won’t know that their life is not as rosy as they want others to believe. These folks fail to realize that happiness begins from within. 
 
Love and Happiness – “You be good to me. I'll be good to you. We'll be together. We'll see each other, walk away with victory.” While often love and happiness can be an elusive thing, together it can also be a beautiful thing. Thanks Brother Al for reminding us of this when the challenges that’s called life, causes us to forget.