by Olivia Bredbenner

Created on: September 15, 2009   Last Updated: September 16, 2009

The closest thing to being happy yourself, is catching happiness from someone else?

Much like wanting good fortune to rub off on you; by touching someone who has just won the lottery. Any one's happiness is felt by those that are close to them. A satisfied feeling that indeed, there is happiness out there for all of us. In some cases, we just have to be in the right place at the right time.

When it comes to real happiness, like the kind we feel when a friend or family member has recovered from a serious illness. Or the exuberant joys, that you can taste, when you hold your first child in your arms, or when you first realize that you truly love somebody. Now that's real happiness. The kind that we try to hang on to in life, for as long as we can.

We live life and experience feelings everyday. However, Robert Heinlein shares that " love is the condition in which happiness of another person is essential to your own." When those we love are happy so are we. We feel right down to our bones.

The fact that happiness is sometimes elusive and filled with the troubles of our time. Makes holding on to happiness, as if it were ours to keep. We are blessed when the opportunity presents itself, to catch happiness from someone else.

Happiness is contagious because in order to really feel happiness, it must be shared. We need to see it reflected in each others face. It then multiplies and lasts for a long time. "Remember" we say when we tell our happy stories over and over again. "Remember when?"

According to Joseph Addison "The grand essentials of happiness are: something to do, something to love, and something to hope for." Happiness is contagious because its attainment, by anyone, reinforces our hope.

Even strangers can pass on happiness; if their minds are in the same place. As the story goes . A young boy about 10 years old, jumps on a local commute trolley. He does this everyday. But today, he has an ice cream cone. As he tilts his head to capture the small trickle on the cone. The other commuters begin to stare at him as he eats his ice cream cone. Eyes watch with smiles; as he quickly finishes it, and chocolate covers his face. " Boy was that good" commuters say to themselves. As most everyone close to him has a smile on their face. That's just a taste of his happiness, memories can be realized with the brief joy of knowing what the ice cream cone tasted like. His small bit of enjoyment and happiness, was contagious and caught by everyone.

When happiness feels far away, and things weigh heavy in our lives. Maybe it will help, if we think like Jim Thomson, who said "I can only think of one thing that is greater than being happy and that is to help another to be happy, too."

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