Happy.

Around about this time a year ago, I was sitting the terrace of a small café on a promontory on the Amalfi Coast, looking out across the Bay of Naples to Vesuvius. It was the most beautiful day – warm and balmy, but not sweltering. The sky above was almost cloudless and the sea beyond the terrace was a postcard Mediterranean Blue. The only flaw in the experience was the radio in the café behind me, which was blaring out the usual awful europap, but I managed to tune it out.

Then the DJ had a sudden rush of taste to the head and put on The GooGoo Dolls beautiful song Iris. I put down the book I was reading to listen to the music and as I did so, I realised something. In that moment I was happy. I had no especial reason to be happy – I was on my own, drinking water, reading a book, but there it was, I was happy. I remember thinking, this is what peace is – being happy in a moment for no particular reason and knowing it.

Happiness isn’t a constant state: perhaps that’s the biggest cultural, emotional con-trick played on us all. Happiness is an intermittent thing: the important thing is to experience it when it occurs and not break your heart trying to make your life and the people in it into the impossible state of constant joy.