it doesn’t matter if the happiness isn’t mine.

you’ll always know when you see happiness. it is that bright ray of sunshine on a winter morning that feels unseasonably warm, or that comfort of the passing wind just when the sun is about to set. you can watch happiness through transparent windows and carry on still, smiling in that very brief moment.

i smile when i see someone laugh and snorting because the joke was too funny or at how someone laughs when they fall off their chair.

i smile when i watch a dog wag it’s tail at me.

i smile when i pass by a beautiful child with rosy-red cheeks. i wave to him hello.

i smile when Richards, the grocery store owner shoves some candy in my bag for free.

i smile when i find someone else smiling,

or when someone cracks a renaissance joke

or when they mimic their dads on the phone.

i find my happiness in the things that aren’t mine.