Reading about J. K. Rowling’s new book The Casual Vacancy put me in the mood to re-read—for probably the eighth time—Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Oh, how I love to re-read.
I enjoyed re-reading it tremendously, and I was particularly struck by a passage that I’d never noticed before.
When, after much pride and prejudice, Darcy and Elizabeth agree to be married, Austen writes of the two characters:
“Darcy was not of a disposition in which happiness overflows in mirth; and Elizabeth, agitated and confused, rather knew that she was happy, than felt herself to be so.”
One of my Secrets of Adulthood is:
Happiness doesn’t always make me feel happy.
Sometimes, I know that I’m happy, but I wouldn’t exactly say that I feel happy.
For instance, many people say that the happiest moments of their lives were when their children were born. I experienced intense emotion when my daughters were born, but I wouldn’t describe it exactly as happy. And yet, I was happy.
Have you had this experience?
Gretchen Rubin is the author of the #1 New York Times Bestseller The Happiness Project—an account of the year she spent test-driving the wisdom of the ages, current scientific studies, and lessons from popular culture about how to be happier—and the recently released Happier at Home. On her popular blog, The Happiness Project, she reports on her daily adventures in the pursuit of happiness. For more doses of happiness and other happenings, follow Gretchen on Facebook and Twitter.
*Photo by MadPole.
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