The Happy Door

By Mildred Cram

Happiness is like a pebble dropped into a pool to set in motion an ever-widening circle of ripples. As Stevenson has said, being happy is a duty.

There is no exact definition of the word happiness. Happy people are happy for all sorts of reasons. The key is not wealth or physical well-being, since we find beggars, invalids and so-called failures who are extremely happy.

Being happy is a sort of unexpected dividend. But staying happy is an accomplishment, a triumph of soul and character. It is not selfish to strive for it. It is, indeed, a duty to ourselves and others.

Being unhappy is like an infectious disease; it causes people to shrink away from the sufferer. He soon finds himself alone, miserable and embittered. There is, however, a cure so simple as to seem, at first glance, ridiculous: If you don’t feel happy, pretend to be!

It works. Before long you will find that instead of repelling people, you attract them. You discover how deeply rewarding it is to be the center of wider and wider circles of good will.
Then the make-believe becomes a reality. You possess the secret of peace of mind, and can forget yourself in being of service to others.

Being happy, once it is realize as a duty and established as a habit, opens doors into unimaginable gardens thronged with grateful friends.

Vocabulary:
· ever-widening: a. 不斷擴張的
· a sort of = a kind of
· invalid : n. 病弱的人 & a. 無效的
· failure: n. 失敗的人事物(C) ；失敗(U)
· dividend: n. 股息(此 引申”好處”)
· accomplishment: n. 成就；才藝
· strive (for N / to V) : (努力爭取/ 努力；奮力)
· strive, strove, striven
· infectious: a. 傳染性的，易傳染的
· be infected with…: 感染
· embittered: a. 難受的
· embitter: vt. 使苦; 使難受
· cure sb of 疾病
· so …as to V = so … that + S+V
· instead of Ving, S+V = rather than V, S+V 非但不…，反而….
· be rewarded with: 被用….來酬謝/獎賞
· in reward for = as a reward for 來酬謝…；作為….的獎賞
· be of service to sb = be of help to sb
· throng: vt.聚集、擠滿 n. 群眾
· be thronged with = be filled with = be crowded with
· a throng of 一群….