“Life is difficult,” were the opening words of distinguished author and psychiatrist, M. Scott Peck, M.D. in his monumental book, The Road Less Traveled.  Dr. Peck accurately points out the harsh reality of life, and no amount of sugar coating can change that reality.  But life can also be very good, at least part of the time, and whether or not life is good, depends more on how we think about life than about the actual circumstances of our individual lives. (See my book, "Thought Boosters: How to lift your spirits by enhancing your thoughts." http://www.amazon.com/THOUGHT-BOOSTERS-enhancing-thoughts-ebook/dp/B005587J2O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1366511985&sr=8-1&keywords=thought+boosters+allen+smith

Growing up on an Indiana farm, I began doing a lot of thinking about life at an early age.  Like everybody else, I wanted to be happy, so I started trying to figure out what I could do to make life better.  My mother and father were very different in the way they thought about life.  Mom always saw the glass of life as half full, whereas Dad saw it as half empty. My mother had more than her fair share of troubles.  Yet, she managed to be reasonably happy a great deal of the time.  She lived to be 94, and she was the most loving person I have ever known. 

Over the years, I have made it a point to observe and try to analyze the people I came into contact with.  Most of them fell into the middle ground of being happy some of the time and unhappy the rest of the time.  But some individuals stood out as being happier than most, and still others were so unhappy that they just seemed to hate the whole world. It is true that people living in extreme poverty, have their happiness diminished by the poverty itself.  But, once income rises slightly above what is needed for the basic necessities of life, additional income, alone, does not seem to increase happiness very much. This observation has been supported by scientific studies on poverty.  Once income has exceeded the basic needs, the relationship between income and happiness becomes weaker and weaker as income continues to rise. 

Happiness is a state of mind, or a way of thinking about life. We cannot change a lot of the circumstances of life that we find ourselves in, but we can change the way we think about life and those circumstances.  Abraham Lincoln once said, “I think most people are just about as happy as they make up their minds to be.”  I believe Lincoln hit the nail squarely on the head with that statement.  Our way of thinking about life is more important than the circumstances of our lives in determining how happy we will be.

   Thinking deeply about life became a basic part of who I am early in life, and my philosophy has gradually evolved over the years. I am especially intrigued by quotations from the great thinkers of the past.  I get a lot of inspiration from reading thought-provoking quotations.  About 17 years ago, I reached a point in my life where I felt an urge to start writing down on paper some of my thoughts about life.   So, in July 1994, I sat down and wrote my first short essay on contemplating life.  A small local newspaper published the essay and thus my weekly column, Contemplating Life, was born. I now live more than a thousand miles from that local paper that was the launching pad for my weekly column, but they still carry my column every week.  The essays are designed to inspire and comfort readers, as well as to stimulate some deep thinking about some very ordinary ideas.  Letters from my readers over the years have convinced me that my essays do give comfort and inspiration to many. 

   Happiness is a Journey is a collection of 77 of the individual essays covering a wide range of topics.  I am making this inspirational book available in Kindle format for only 99 cents, in the hope of reaching many additional readers.