happiness, hiding nearby

“The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things.”
— Henry Ward Beecher

Henry Ward Beecher—brother to Harriet Beecher Stowe of Uncle Tom’s Cabin fame—was basically an OG mindfulness teacher in a pulpit.  Long before Instagram quotes and brain scans backed it up, Beecher was busy delighting in sunbeams, dirt under his nails, and the unfiltered joy of children.  He treated gratitude as a superpower, and his garden was less a hobby than a sanctuary.

At a time when sermons were often fire, brimstone, and barely a chuckle, Beecher brought something radical: joy.  He famously said, “Mirth is God’s medicine. Everybody ought to bathe in it.”

I agree: laughter is holy.  Joy is not an accessory to spiritual life—it is spiritual life.