It was then that Heather decided to take a somewhat experimental treatment route including the removal of her left lung, a rib, part of her diaphragm, and the lining of her heart and lung, and a chemotherapy cocktail wash of her chest and abdomen before being stitched up, followed by weeks of chemotherapy and radiation. But her life was about to change. Again …

It seems there are about as many definitions of happiness as there are people who spend any time talking about it. But some of the definitions leave us wondering whether we would even recognize the thing if it were to hit us between the eyes in broad daylight. So what is it? When we know what it is (and isn’t), we will better know how to find it and how to keep it.

How many dreams have been still-born by a single rejection letter or a bad interview or a critical co-worker? How many dreams have never even been inseminated by the fertilizing agent of action because of doubt and the lack of conviction or the pull of the status quo or just plain laziness? And most importantly, what quality is missing in such circumstances and how do we develop it?

Have you searched for and grasped at happiness and found it fleeting and inconsistent? Are you tired of the effort, disappointment and frustration? Perhaps you’ve already come to the same conclusion I have, that happiness is just not for you, that, indeed, it was never meant for you. Now, before you jump to conclusions here, keep reading to see what I mean.

If you have a passion for something, pursue it! If it courses in your veins, give it life. Develop your talents. Become great at what you do. There is beauty and life and happiness and meaning in it irrespective of the dollar value others will or will not pay you to express it.

Belief is the blanket we wrap ourselves in when life seems cold and dark and harsh. It is the hope that shines in the darkened tunnels of life. It is a framework, a map and a marker on the path we choose to travel. It unlocks doors and oils hinges and greases paths. But it’s only the starting point.

Words are the bodies the soul of an idea is born into. The quality of our words attracts others to our cause or repels them from it. Sometimes, the quality of an idea is enough to give it wings. At other times, the words used to convey an idea are the nails in the coffin of its premature death.

It’s my birthday today and was going to post another installment of “Things you don’t know about me” when I decided on a whim to share my personal happiness story with you instead. Here are 22 reasons I’m happy.

Hope is the light that glimmers in the dark of the unknown. It is the flicker of possibility in the murky depths of the impossible. It is the reason we kneel in prayer and work to improve our lives and volunteer to help others. It is why we wake up and move forward and dream of better days.

Why do we wait for anniversaries to celebrate marriage? Why do we wait for birthdays to celebrate births? And why do we wait for funerals to celebrate life? Why wait for the day of the event or the end of a life to celebrate what we could be celebrating daily?

Has life been one unbearable trial after another? Have you been beaten up and chewed up and spit out by a history that has left you maimed, scarred and bloodied? Have you ever considered that the very pain of life has fertilized the soil of your heart to yield fruit it could have produced in no other way?

Today is a wholly new day unlike any previous set of 24 hours. This day will never reoccur. It will never return. It is unique unto itself. How are you going to live it?

Martin Luther King led a movement not merely by virtue of his character or charisma, but because he was able to get others to catch the vision he regularly articulated. He was thereby able to convince the nation that his dream was not only worth fighting for, but was the only dream worthy of having.

Ideas are powerful things that can take on a life of their own, digging like roots deep into our hearts and souls and branching out into the circumstances of our lives as we nourish and tend to the germinating seed of thought. Come see my top 10 favorite ideas captured in picture quotes, ready for bite-sized consumption!

It’s been said that when we assume, we make an “ass” out of “u” and “me” (ass+u+me). But are we to assume nothing in life? I believe some assumptions are helpful, even essential to a happy life. Come see if you agree with these seven assumptions I make every single day.

Do you have an extra 5 hours a day you could devote to doing what you love? If you could find 5 hours, that would translate to and extra 34 hours a week, or 136 hours most months and 1,768 hours a year. That’s a whopping 8,840 hours in just 5 years’ time and 17,680 hours in a decade you can devote to learning something, overcoming something, developing something, to creating an amazing life. If you are anything like the national average, I can offer you the gift of those 5 extra hours, free of charge.

Why do we take the whole of humanity and carve them up into distinct categories of subdivided, semi-related, subgroups, sorted and classified as separate clusters of generalized identities, all tagged and marked for racial and lingual and socioeconomic distinction, subsectioned into demarcated and clearly separated differences? Why not think of others the way my son does?

Something deep inside me yearns to reach millions, to extend the message of happiness to every corner of the globe. Not being one to sit around and wait for things to happen, I’m launching The Happiness Movement. Check it out and take a look at the special invite/offer to bloggers.

Has life lost its spark? Does it feel hallow and empty? Has the meaning of your life been lost to the daily grind of living? Has the flame gone out? If you feel like something is missing, whether large and numbing or small and vaguely unsatisfying, it may be time to reevaluate the meaning of your life, or perhaps simply add more meaning to it.

Are you bored? Has life lost some of its excitement and interest? Boredom is a pernicious thief of happiness, stealing joy from the moments a life is made of. It is a symptom of something misaligned in our lives. Learn how to end boredom forever with just a few simple changes and begin to enjoy a happier, more rewarding life.