For several years now, I have been conducting a private study of our obsession with happiness. We sometimes live in a rather tragicomic paradox: we chase joy and perfection so fiercely that, somewhere mid-pursuit, we are the ones who end up escaping them. Even in the lap of luxury, we reliably catch ourselves wondering whether the grass isn’t greener on the other side after all.
Leaving a luxurious paradise is hard, but the ability to willingly complicate our own lives and see the true essence of things is our finest superpower. Perhaps only then can we discover the raw, unfiltered joy of “ordinary” existence and the thousands of small, everyday gifts.
