Where does happiness reside?

We strive for it all of our days,
often not recognizing the presence of its lightness
yet surely feeling the heaviness of its departure.

Fearful we are that too much happiness will betray us,
though not enough will spay us,
how can the drops of rain needed to satiate the earth be counted?

Searching for happiness is like
looking for a perfect shell upon the beach
drawn in by the tide,
then washed away
all at once.

Linda Joy Walder

(Reprinted from Running Naked in the Snow, Free Verse Press, 2021)