"Happy days are back again" , by Erik Pevernagie, Oil on canvas, (100 x 100 cm)   xx

Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein says: " Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent." The painter, however, says: "Whereof I cannot speak, I will paint." Whereas Wittgenstein advises being silent about things we cannot speak of, we can skillfully use our hands and manipulate our thoughts.

Is happiness one of these premises we can't speak of and must be silent about?

Should we be capable of 'forgiving or forgetting' to be happy? If anger is too powerful and overwhelming, and we cannot tame or cage our rage, we must forget about forgiving. But if real life does not stop crying out for us, telling us to store new energy and experiences and inviting us to sort out the tools for cleaning up our boisterous interior, a new reality may start taking shape, transmitting joy and letting us tune in with ourselves. When we are in line with the world, we can feel a new mindset has absorbed us and eventually sense what is essential in our lives.

Many people may have experienced the special paradoxical feeling of never being aware of happiness and, nonetheless, one day, stating it is no longer there. It was non-existent, and it was missing out at a particular moment. It has been slumbering, absent in mind, and suddenly bubbles up and actuates its past presence."

We often realize what happiness is about after it has slammed the door to our inattention and killing silence has deafened the tunefulness of our life.

Is happiness not just a phenomenon in our imagination or a result of an interpretation? We become meddled in a confrontation of confusing and inconsistent sentiments. For that reason, the French writer Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian said: "Pour vivre heureux, vivons caches.": "To live happily, live hidden." So, many are silent about it because it is difficult to express.

Bearing in mind the misery and poverty in the world, must happiness and success be hidden? Could admitting to a pursuit of happiness demonstrate selfishness and unintellectual conduct? On the contrary, can it not be an incentive or motivation for others? Giving voice to happiness, can it not be a challenge or a beneficial contagion, becoming a salutary infectious syndrome?

If we are fairly observant and overly patient, a vibration of happiness might crop up unwittingly as we capture the "timelessness" of a lucky moment and sparkle of a stray instant, unexpectedly enrapturing our life in a blaze of color and splendor.

Expecting the unexpected should not frighten us but let us wheedle each instant we enjoy and endear each happy moment we encounter. Let us watch each step we take, and each move we make ever since happiness is a kind and appealing fairy but utterly frail and vulnerable.

If the dust of volcanic love has settled and the harshness of a new reality has become too oppressive, disillusionment may have to be mended, wounds to be healed, and emotional fallouts to be taken care of.

Phenomenon: Happiness.