Happiness

Perhaps the reason for self-help conventions, books and videos are so popular is because humans grasp at the hope of sustained happiness.  

From my own personal experience those moments of elation and thinking I found the holy grail of happiness retreated and flew away within an hour of finding that holy grail.  

Searching for permanent happiness outside of ourselves is always fleeting. And as the mind works even moments of intuition can be just as fleeting.  

Happiness is found by repeatedly searching our own beliefs, behaviors and influences. 

The more you know yourself the less fleeting happiness is because you will find what really makes you happy and nothing can ever take that away from you.  

 

Georgia
9/2001 

Contentment

I am holding contentment in my hand.

Contentment is my peach.

Four peaches on a blue rimmed plate.

Did I pluck the peach from the blue rimmed plate?

Did I pluck the peach from the Cezanne painting?

I touch the soft velvety skin of my peach.

My Persian fruit is sun warmed from orange to yellow.

I open the peach with a serrated knife.

I smell the sweet scented delicate aroma.

My fingers are wet and sticky from the juicy droplets.

I taste the luscious succulent  pulp.

One slice for you; one slice for me

Until I reach the rough textured almond tasting stone.

I held contentment in my hand.

Ethyl Haber

September 2021

A Great Surprise to Catch a Happy Moment

     After graduating from law school, it is necessary to take and pass Bar examinations that consist of two separate tests. I took the examinations and then awaited the results. I would be in touch with friends I made in law school and who also took the examinations. One friend was Everett Rosenblum with whom I used to study. There were rumors when the results would be made, mostly incorrect. Finally it became clear when the results would be made public, which happened to be on that year’s Yom Kippur.  The results are printed in both the New York Times  and at that time in the Herald Tribune. I was still living in Middle Village at the time and the local stores owned by Jews would be closed for Yom Kippur. That meant I would not be able  the next day to procure one of the newspapers and read the Bar Exam results.

     I thought if I called one of the newspapers and explained the situation, they would be able to tell me if my name was included in the list of those who passed the exams. I called the Herald Tribune, explained the situation and since the results would be listed in the next day’s issue, is it possible for me to be told the results? The answer was in the affirmative and I gave my name Benjamin M. Haber.  I waited a few minutes for the person to speak to me, and after several minutes she said, “ I am sorry to tell you, there is no name on the list with an H. ‘’

    Suffice it to say, I was very disappointed. It could mean I failed both exams and needed to take them again the following year, or the possibility I failed only one of the two exams and needed to retake just that one exam. Still it meant I was incapable of finishing some further  required interviews to become licensed to practice law. Disappointed?  Of course.  About an hour later that evening, the telephone rang and when I pick it up, the voice says, “ This is Everett, congratulations, we both passed the exams.” I replied,  “ You are wrong, according to the Herald Tribune, I failed.” Everett replied: “I do not know what you are talking about, I have the New York Times in front of me and your name is listed with those who passed.”

     I was of course elated and could hardly wait until I was able to get a copy of the Herald Tribune and figure out if the Times was incorrect. When I got a copy of the Tribune, the mystery was solved. It appeared the H names were all listed after the Z names.  The person I had spoken to on the telephone, simply stopped looking after she noticed no H after the G names.

     Was in view of the foregoing, the end result a great surprise?  It sure was.

Ben Haber 

Indian Summer

 

Yesterday was my birthday.

I like the day, the fifth of September.

Always close to or right on Labor Day weekend

It feels like a three-day holiday every year.

 

The ocean breeze and seaside beckon

pulling me towards a beach boardwalk

where I rejoice with perfect strangers

unaware that they are extras in my film blanc.

 

No towels or umbrellas, no chairs or accoutrements

No encumbrances whatsoever

Just salt in my hair and the end-of-summer sting

Right before school should begin.

 

Each year better than the last

A private new year celebration

Free to be me and happy to live life freely.

 

Looking forward to leaves on the ground

And the shofar’s sound

Hopes and dreams and silent screams

Echo through time with excitement sublime.

 

 

Yvonne Anzolone

September 6, 2021

Rockaway Beach

Thoughts

 

It seems unlikely that this far-fetched experiment will bear any fruit, but in a sense of open mindedness I embrace the diaphragm of my phone receiver which has been unscrewed for my use to “feel” this live performance from Carnegie Hall of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. The music begins to play not through my ears but through the tips of my fingers! Suddenly to my surprise I am transported back in time to May 7^th ,1824 when Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony was first launched on its maiden voyage, navigating an ocean of sound, riding the crests and troughs of the maelstrom to its eventual finale in a celebration of life created by a man also denied his hearing. The composition is a beautiful and inspirational piece, which I can tell through its varied vibrations, by a man who gratefully accepted his limitations and courageously forged ahead, not afraid to be laughed at in pursuit of his art, he conducted the orchestra himself, totally deaf. I have read that at its completion one of Beethoven’s soloists plucked at his sleeve directing his attention to the grand applause, along with the waving hats and handkerchiefs of his wildly appreciative audience. He turned and bowed.

 

Jim

Sept. 2021

Car Talk with Dad

 

 CONVERSATION IN DAD’S CAR ONE TWILIGHT IN 1974

 

“Hey kid, who’s that cluck?”

“Oh Dad, he’s just a friend.”

“Where did you meet this friend?  Seems a little old for you.”

“I met him through my friend Susan, she’s new in my class.  He plays in her brother’s band.  It’s a rock band.  “They play a lot of Santana.”

“Santana?  What’s that because it’s not familiar.”

“They’re cool.  They play rock but with a Latin beat.”

“I’ll assume they don’t play Cha Cha Cha.”

“No, Dad, they don’t play at weddings or school dances.”

“Hey what are you doing? I’m listening to 1010 WINS.”

“I’m trying for find Santana so you can hear them.  Wow, I got them.  Listen.”

 

‘Got a black magic woman……she’s trying to make a devil out of me.’

 

“Uh huh, that’s enough for me. Put it back on 1010.”

 

                ‘The Hearst Family has received a ransom message from the Symbionese Liberation Army regarding their daughter, Patty….’ 

 

“What’s the Symbionese Liberation Army?  Who’s Patty Hearst?”

“They are a bunch of ne’er-do-wells and violent criminals.  This rich girl got mixed up with them and now she thinks she’s Angela Davis.”

“It sounded like they kidnapped her to get money.  You’re making it sound like she wants to be there.”

“People who are wealthy are not necessarily healthy.  Their money doesn’t always bring them joy.”

“I wish we were rich, don’t you?”

“Why?  We have a nice home and a good car.  Your mom is a great wife and mother.  You go to a good school, take dance and piano lessons, what more do you want?”

“Clothes, records, I don’t know, money.”

“Listen kid,  you’re going up the hill.  I’m already on my way down.  Whenever everyone is going right, go left.  I have been around a lot longer and met lots of windbags and braggarts.  Just remember this, the emptiest can makes the loudest noise.  Take this Patty Hearst, for example.  One of the richest families in the richest nation in the world.  She went to the best schools.  Ate and drank the finest there is and probably less happy than you or I.  Don’t waste time worrying about being rich.  You have more than millions of kids in this world and you’re very fortunate.  Never forget it.”

 

YVONNE ANZOLONE

September 2021

 

 

Sunny Afternoon

 

Yesterday the sea was wild and beautiful.

The afternoon tide came crashing in

Full of mighty winds’ resonance.

 

The sun was kind and kissed my arms with warm breezes

While sea salt sprayed my lips and gave me a wonderful thirst.

 

There was white light everywhere.

The roll of clouds pulled me along the way

Just then everything became a backdrop.

 

I felt myself smile with my whole face

As my hands stretched out before me

My feet marched merrily onward.

 

The world around me was sapphire blue

Cyclists, surfers, swimmers, an array of children at play

chased my sorrows away on a fair June day.

 

 

 

Yvonne

June 2021

Rockaway Beach