Is Happiness an Illusion

Is happiness an illusion—

a trick of light

on the surface of water,

beautiful

until you reach for it?

I’ve watched it move

from hand to hand,

seen people swear

they finally found it

only to lose it again

in the quiet hours.

Maybe happiness

was never meant to stay.

Maybe it’s not a house

we live inside forever,

but a window

that opens sometimes

when the air is right.

We expect permanence.

We want something solid—

a promise

that once joy arrives

it will unpack its bags

and call our hearts home.

But life

is less certain than that.

Joy flickers.

Peace comes and goes.

Even love

changes shape

as the years move through it.

So maybe happiness

isn’t an illusion.

Maybe it’s a visitor—

brief, real,

impossible to cage.

Something that passes through

just long enough

to remind us

why we keep living

in the first place.