Happy events come and go.

We seem to put a great deal of stock in “happy.” The truth is, the more we think it’s something “out there” somewhere that we can find and keep, the less we have it. Happiness—or peace, or love—starts inside. It’s not something we can chase after and get. We have to choose it. We have to plant it if it’s what we want to grow in our lives.

If you want to be happy, it has a lot more to do with what you give than what you get: