Perhaps its for those who already have a life … that they must live their life for they have already been given gift of entering this world. If they do not open themselves to the world .. then it is only death that they are living? The point of it all would be to treasure that one chance at life that we are all given.

I do so much enjoy your statement that we should not conform to other people’s perception of happiness but rather being own self … determining who we are and what denotes as our happiness.

Josephine
- The point about positive affirmation. I truly believe consistency in being positive will ultimately internalize a far more productive and happier nature.

As much as I have said “Why waste time looking at a glass half empty?” … I do sometimes wonder if it may (at the cost of playing the Devil’s Advocate) per chance give way to self-denial …

Regardless … I’ll continue wishing … good things
To all
- I’m very thankful all the comments thus far, thay have been extraordinarily thought provoking and hugely uplifting

So think happy, positive. During times when life does not treat you too kindly, it does not matter. Let the moments of destress and despondency pass.

Its important as, like words, our thoughts can be positive or negative, and the mind cannot distinguish between the two. And I believe that positive affirmations will actualize desires and ambitions into reality.

So start wishing….. good things…..

On contrary…I intepreted the poem in a different way though I do agree with what you and the others said.

I think, other than the above, it’s also about appreciating life and the different people in the world for what they are, how they are.

We need to appreciate the flowers that did not, at that one single chance, for whatever reason open.

“They cannot be forgiven
For they must open and if they don’t
It is the end”

Why do the flowers need to be “forgiven” for not opening? And forgiven by whom? Were they not just exercising their own choice for not opening?

The world is cruel in that many times, we only have but 1 chance to prove ourselves. We need to live our life according to the norms in order to be accepted. Failure to comply would be “the end”.

While we should always be looking ahead positively in pursuit of happiness for ourselves, we should also not be so quick to judge those who seem unhappy or who, do not live their life in the way we think they should…for really, to who’s criteria and definition must they live their life?

Too often, we are too concerned about how we live our life. Are we happy? Are we doing the right thing? Are those around us being morally upright and so on and so forth. But in my honest opinion, we can only achieve true happiness when we live life the way we want, according to our own definition of happiness…not somebody elses’.

Just my 2 cents…

I do wonder … do we

a) Skip the bad moments in life and keep all the good memories. But it might mean we are living an illusion as we do not acknowledge the path we have tread. “Contentment brings fulfillment.” How do we achieve contentment if we do not acknowledge the difficult times in our life? We’d never know what we have until we have lost it.

Or

b) Remember the bad and good ones but learn from the bad to enjoy the good even more fully. However, it might be more painful since we will never ever truly learn everything there is to learn. We, in the end, are all fallible; we are human … we were never made to carry the pain of everything that comes our way … I daresay I might even go mad.

Or

c) Live an amalgamation of both theories. A balance perhaps would be the most prudent.

Such is the conundrum of life or more precisely our MIND. As you have so aptly said … work on your mind .. I so very much agree

Josephine
- “I do have regrets…. those are just the fallen petals… but I am still in bloom, still filling the air with sweet aromas…. until the last petal falls….”

Truly beautiful interpretation … To love and be loved in return … I do think of it many a times … So far, I’ve realized that we can’t force another to love us. The only thing we can affect is ourselves and that is to be someone whom can be loved. I take solace that at the very least, my loved one is happy wherever she is.

Contentment brings about fulfillment…..

The pursuit of happiness, so alluring yet so fearful. What do we know of our destiny to know what will make us happy?

“To be happy is to be able to love and be loved….” yet the hardest thing on this earth is to be able to love and be loved in return. Ain’t it true?

I do have regrets…. those are just the fallen petals… but I am still in bloom, still filling the air with sweet aromas…. until the last petal falls….

And to add on…

Living my life to the fulless.. at least when I’m at old age & looking back, I dare say I had lived my life with no regrets..