Free Happiness

I’ve been thinking about smiles today.
Our airport location opens fairly early, so oftentimes I am a bit groggy as I climb the
stairs into the ticketing area. Today I was wide-eyed and bleary at nothing in particular
when some movement caught my eye. It was one of the employees at one of the coffee
stations waving and smiling. I’ve never met him before, so the gesture was purely out of
generosity. It jarred me out of my bleariness and sent me out into the ticketing area with
a grin across my face and the urge to communicate this feeling I was carrying.
Yesterday was a particularly fun and quirky day here with a woman who came in looking
for some make-up. She was doing some haggling. She was doing some testing and
she finally asked if I could give her something for free to “make her happy.” I’ve been
unable to stop thinking about this question ever since.
I was more than happy to put together a little sample up of eyeshadow for her. (The
Youngblood Make-Up line that we carry is pretty awesome, so I love to share!) I
couldn’t stop thinking about what might make one TRULY happy after this question,
though. I hope she left here satisfied with her customer service experience and her bag of
goodies; however, I can’t help but think of that smile I got this morning and how happy
that is still making me.
A basic premise of Buddhism is that desire is the root of all suffering. Think of it
this way: if you are always looking to improve your station, add to your wardrobe,
add to the anything you feel, you are never satisfied with what you have right NOW.
There is ABSOLUTELY nothing wrong with a bit of make-up for the face, but if desire
runs deeper than that then a solution via make-up is only superficial. It is intimidating to
look inside, but little is more freeing.
We can all hope to free ourselves little by little day after day.

– Meredith, Assistant Spa Director at The Dragontree PDX

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *