A young man with an unusually happy disposition once came to meet me in Jerusalem. I asked him, "What's your secret?"
He told me, "When I was 11 years old, God gave me a gift of happiness. I was riding my bicycle when a strong gust of wind blew me onto the ground into the path of an oncoming truck. The truck ran over me and cut off my leg.
"As I lay there bleeding, I realized that I might have to live the rest of my life without a leg. How depressing! But then I realized that being depressed won't get my leg back. So I decided right then and there not to waste my life despairing.
"When my parents arrived at the hospital they were shocked and grieving. I told them, 'I've already adapted. Now you also have to get used to this.'
"Ever since then, I see my friends getting upset over little things: their bus came late, they got a bad grade on a test, somebody insulted them. But I just enjoy life."
At age 11, this young man attained the clarity that it is a waste of energy to focus on what you are missing, and that the key to happiness is to take pleasure in what you have.
Happiness is not a happening; it's a state of mind. You can have everything in the world and still be miserable. Or you can have relatively little and feel unbounded joy.
As the Talmud says, "Who is rich? The one who appreciates what he has" (Ethics of the Fathers, 4:1).
That's why the morning prayers begin with a series of blessings thanking God for the simple and obvious:
Thank you, God, for giving me life Thank God I can see, that I can use my hands and feet, that I can think.
Happiness comes from mastering the art of appreciating and consciously enjoying what you already have.
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