A few days ago, I was talking with a coach friend of mine about happiness. There is, after all, so much to be unhappy about, and there are so many unsolicited resources to produce the state, that the effort to avoid it requires a real concentration of will and direction of mind. Happiness, on the other hand, is evanescent, bubbling up for an irrational moment and vanishing if observed too closely.

This morning, I was faced with an empty aged bud vase and one of the glories of our challenging Texas summers, a crape myrtle in resplendent bloom. Now, I know that as a cut flower, the crape myrtle is a pleasure of the moment. Try as you may, the flowers fall from the stem rapidly. But, oh, what a frilly riot of color they give you to view for that moment.

Being happy is like that as well. You know that it will pass too soon, that it is its nature to fall away. Nevertheless, that need not mean that, for whatever fleeting moment you find that you can keep your eye on it, you should refrain from doing so. As Diane and I agreed, it is all right – for that instant – to see things as being all right.

By the way, it may interest you to know another name for the crape myrtle: loosestrife

as lengthy the Texas’ summer, as fleeting the captured crape myrtle

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