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<\/a><\/p>\nWhen my Elder son was very small,<\/strong> and was trying to figure out facial expressions, he would ask me, or my husband, or the lady at the grocery store, \u201cAre you \u2018appy?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n He was missing his h\u2019s for a little while.<\/p>\n Sometimes my husband and I will still tease each other with that. He\u2019ll see me looking pensive and ask \u201care you \u2018appy?\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s a sweet question<\/strong>, and it always makes me smile, for the warm memories of my son at such a young age. But sometimes I wonder if, rather than asking people if they\u2019re happy, we shouldn\u2019t ask them, \u201care you grateful?<\/em>\u201d Because joy, or \u2018appiness<\/em>, I am convinced, comes from a capacity to actually see the good things in one\u2019s life, and acknowledge them as good, and then be thankful.<\/p>\n Gratitude that one is employed; gratitude that one can walk across a room, unassisted. Gratitude for the senses. Gratitude for love, where we find it. The question can be deceptive; it seems simple<\/strong>, but becomes complicated when one is forced to consider it, head-on.<\/p>\n In a very interesting look back at 1968<\/strong> (thanks to reader Debbie L!) two Catholic sisters (by their habits I would guess they are Adrian Dominicans) \u2014 Sister Marie Arn\u00e9 and Sister Mary Campion of St. Denis Parish in Chicago \u2014 participated in a documentary in which they were given a microphone and told to wade out into the crowds of Chicago to ask people (who, perhaps would feel less threatened by a nun with a mic) the simple\/complex question, \u201cAre you happy?\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n
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\nAre you \u2018appy?<\/em><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n