Wise Women Friday: Colette on Happiness

Words of wisdom from Colette (1873-1954):

Be happy.  It's one way of being wise.

Although best known in the U.S. for her novel Gigi, which became the basis for the Broadway play and movie of the same name, Colette was a prolific writer.  She published fifty novels as well as numerous memoirs and even an opera, which she co-wrote with Ravel.  She was married three times, had numerous bisexual affairs, turned her home into a hospital for soldiers during World War I, hid her Jewish husband in her attic during the entire length of World War II, got thrown off the Paris stage for kissing a woman in a Revue, had an unwanted pregnancy that resulted in her practically abandoning her daughter to the care of an English nanny, and received various national awards and honors, including a state funeral.  So I think she knows what's she's talking about.

Happiness is not like watching T.V.  You just can't sit waiting and watching.  It's more like a garden.  You must cultivate it.  You must weed out the thorns and thistles that will scratch you and the long vines that will snake their way around your ankles and drag you down.  You must water your garden.  You must give it plenty of manure and sunshine.  You must not crowd your garden.  You must give it careful attention, otherwise it will certainly wither.  And, in the end, you must determinedly do these things yourself.  Only you can cultivate your garden.  Only you can make yourself happy.  Only you can make yourself wise.