Cairo, the 20th October, 2009

“I am happy when…”

The concept of Happiness is as wide as the Atlantic Ocean that covers my beloved Portugal.

In the West, Happiness has been confused with achievement on so many levels and yet people strive for the REAL feeling of being HAPPY without ever getting there. Women, in particular, find it hard to figure out what is it exactly that it takes to be happy. Should they be successful career women or build a happy family, simply find a good lover or travel around the world with the Peace Corps?!
The possibilities are endless and freedom has been an almost granted right for us for quite some time. This is great but still we didn´t figure out the way to achieve and maintain a satisfying level of Happiness.

In the East, Happiness is an even more elusive term. I find extremely religious countries to be distant from spiritual awareness and, therefore, dislocated from the smallest glimpse of true Happiness that comes from PEACE of mind, first and most of all.

I am happy when I feel loved and understood.
I am happy when I dance or sing by myself, for my grandmother (the only person I dance to in private) or for my audiences.
I am happy when I reach somebody´s soul through my work or a simple gesture in my daily life.
I am happy when I feel total absence of anger and all my enemies are forgiven.
I am happy when I grab my mum´s hand or sleep by my sister´s side.
I am happy when I´m in love.
I am happy when it´s summer and all I have around me is my dearest Atlantic Ocean.
I am happy when I recognize that all my adventures and misadventures were not in vain. All it´s worth it.
I am happy when I stop judging arabic mentality and accept that we´re all simply different from each other and never superior/inferior in any way.
I am happy when I am kind to myself as I am to others.
I am happy when I realize that Life is only NOW.