The contentment gene should be patented. But if not born with it, is there other ways to acquire it? Some have called it the happiness set point. Looking at our expectations might be a good place to start. Sometimes we need to be vigilant to ensure that our expectations are not fueling our unhappiness. Expecting little can ironically lead to a happier life as one doesn’t suffer constant disappointment. In our Western world we often grow up with a sense of entitlement. We expect to do better than the last generation. We expect to own a fashionable home, we expect Continue reading
Tag Archives: simple life
Renovation
Why are we so keen on renovation? Is it an extension of ourselves as well as our houses? Or is it a way just to consume more and more? (And I do speak here as a seasoned renovator.) Do we really go to dinner parties and talk of bathroom tiles as Hugh Mackay suggested? Following fashions is not new; it can be seen in the Austen universe where the Eighteenth Century trend was to create the picturesque.
Upon taking over Norland, in Sense and Sensibility Fanny and John Dashwood, successful power couple, make it their daily business to be fashionable. On their estate, what looks good is the most important factor in a decision. Running a self-sufficient estate is not as important as impressing your friends and community. They must do improvements to the place and of course the productive “old walnut trees are all come down”. It reminds me of some people who move in to the old suburbs, raze the old garden getting rid of the roses and fruit trees, and replace the whole with shrubs and pebbles in the latest fashion. (Fortunately this is no longer the latest fashion!) And then they congratulate themselves on having destroyed a garden because now they are being water wise! No wonder Eleanor had to keep the “concern and her censure to herself” when she has to listen to her brother’s fashionable plans.
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Can attention to the domestic make us happy?
English: The Merri Creek passing through Fairfield and Clifton Hill with the Melbourne city skyline in the distance, Victoria, Australia. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
It may seem a strange question in our modern world but it seems to me many are asking it. Now that there are so many opportunities for men and women to find satisfaction in their workplaces and their careers some people are perversely turning their back on such values and reinstating the need for pleasure in our domestic lives. No one would want to be exclusively confined to a domestic sphere but it can be a place where happiness is found for certain periods of our lives.
Egotistical-Emma, in Emma, wants us to believe that the local farmers, the Martins and Mr Martin in particular, are living an inferior lifestyle. Yet when we look more closely at the Martin way of living it is almost idyllic: there are moonlight walks, espaliered apple trees, a pretty gravel walk, walnuts, and even a shepherd boy brought near the fire to sing to the family. Continue reading
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Local Landscapes
Taking delight in our local landscape brings us happiness. Sometimes we think we need the exotic holiday to be happy but I know that within walking distance from my home there are walks of such beauty that can take your breath away. A little bit of water, a creek or a river, some natural vegetation and a pathway through can sometimes be enough to lift the spirits of a despondent person. Nauseatingly-Nice Fanny Price in Mansfield Park appreciates the landscape; she notices “the bearings of the roads, the difference of the soil, the state of the harvest, the cottagers, the cattle”. This is contrasted with Mercenary-Mary who saw “nature inanimate nature, with little observation her attention was all for men and women”.
Nauseatingly-Nice Fanny Price appreciates the natural: She is looking out the window one starlit night and says, Continue reading
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