Scotia Half-marathon

It's a rainy Monday afternoon outside, and right now my legs feel so stiff and sore after running in the Toronto Waterfront Half-Marathon yesterday.

There is a definite price to pay for running the 21 km (13 miles), but just like the other few thousand runners who took part, it was well worth it. The elated sense of achievement after crossing the line is unbelievable. :)

Brothers in arms

The lyrics from this classic Dire Straits song have an almost spiritual feel to them. I'm in this kind of mood today...

These mist covered mountains
Are a home now for me
But my home is the lowlands
And always will be
Some day you'll return to
Your valleys and your farms
And you'll no longer burn
To be brothers in arms

Through these fields of destruction
Baptism of fire
I've watched all your suffering
As the battles raged higher
And though they did hurt me so bad
In the fear and alarm
You did not desert me
My brothers in arms

There's so many different worlds
So many different suns
And we have just one world
But we live in different ones

Now the sun's gone to hell
And the moon's riding high
Let me bid you farewell
Every man has to die
But it's written in the starlight
And every line on your palm
We're fools to make war
On our brothers in arms

The Nature of Happiness

What makes you happy ?

At an outer level ? At an inner level ?

Once you have achieved the basics required for human existence - food, clothing, shelter - how do you determine the discretionary components of your life that will make you happy/content/satisfied ? How much love do you need ? How much money ? Spirituality ? Good health ? Sense of social belonging and being able to connect ? What about giving and receiving ? Does a law of diminishing returns also apply to happiness - beyond which one cannot get any happier ?

Perhaps the irony of happiness is that sometimes you need to experience anxiety in order to appreciate the former. Just like you need to experience winter to enjoy summer, or darkness to appreciate light ? And does our definition of 'happiness' change as we get older, or are there a common set of denominators that stay with us throughout our lives ?