Happiness is a choice

Yesterday, a client asked me what happiness is for me.

It is a question we might ask regularly, as the contours of happiness change with our lives.

I answered – to be surrounded by people who love you and you love. To spend time doing your art, expressing your Pattern Integrity. (https://syntropic.world/pattern-integrity-and-source-idea-as-sacred/) To be in deep partnership with your beloved/beloveds. And to be moved, every day, by beauty and awe. 

It was easy to answer. I have the soul bruises, the earned passes to bring happiness into simplicity. Time on my knees, broken, feeling helpless. Time questioning the Universe, life and everything, as it seemed to conspire, in every possible way, against me.

Happiness is a choice. No matter what the world offers. I witnessed this in the favelas in Rio de Janeiro. 

Most of us learn this through times in the crucible or on our knees. It might even need to be said that times in the crucible might be seen as precious times, the path to greater. 

If you are in a crucible, know it is the place where everything you no longer need to choose happiness will be burned away.

Published August 13th 2026. Photo taken August 13th 2026