Happiness Abides Within

I've lived in Chicago. I've lived in Connecticut. I've lived in New York City. I live in Atlanta. I would like live a portion of my older years in the Caribbean.

Whenever I visit places, most recently, my native Chicago, I leave with this sense that I am leaving something behind. Some peace or ease of living that exists there that doesn't where I currently reside. The same happened during a trip to NYC a few weeks ago. And so too did this emotional yearning occur when I departed from my four day press-trip to the Bahamas.

But the entire time I was home in Chicago I listened to my mother complain about the declining quality of life, the escalating prices of everything, and the outrageous murder rate (which everyone should be complaining about). While waiting to fly out of Atlanta to the Bahamas I met a woman in the airport, a recent transplant to the city, who professed that she hated the ATL. Even in my own household there is a geographic pursuit of happiness --- an assignment of almost mythic grandeur to either a place you once were or a place you have yet to arrive that leaves persons perpetually unsatisfied. I've been guilty of the same. I think most of us who walk upright, breathe air and communicate via language have been at least once.