May 2016 meeting for reverence

The theme of our gathering on Sunday 8 May was “Happiness – Don’t let it get you down”.

 The proposition was that if we define happiness as being a particular condition, then if for some reason we are not able to attain that condition we may add disappointment, guilt or confusion to our personal baggage.  Not only do we “fail” in finding happiness but we entrap ourselves with false expectations – this is scarcely a path to lightness of heart and freedom of living.  We noted that specifying an expected condition for happiness can become a trap within some faith traditions for some of their adherents.

So we looked at various definitions of happiness, starting with the Hellenistic Epicurean, Sceptic and Stoic schools of philosophy.  In essence, Epicureans defined happiness in terms of experiencing pleasure; Sceptics, in terms of honour, in terms of living according to conscience; and Stoics, in terms of evenness of flow of life, i.e. no exaggerated elation or exaggerated disappointment.

We were invited to contemplate in our period of silence how we personally describe or define happiness.  And we were invited to consider that every path cannot be smooth all the time, and, rather than detracting from it, the rough patches actually enrich the overall human experience via poignancy.  As an illustration of this we heard from the closing chapters of  The Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkien, a man who knew suffering first-hand from his experiences of the Great War.  He was able to write the memorable words, “I will not say: do not weep;  for not all tears are an evil.”

We sang the tune of Amazing Grace but to some words speaking to the changing seasons, the river merging with the sea, birth and death, and each verse closing with the words “Though never twice the same”.  Our gathering ended with the blessing below:

“May the Great Tree spread above you,

And the River run on through you,

May the Star shine soft upon you,

And bathe you in its splendour,

Unto the edge of day.”