Happiness cannot be programmed

I am on vacation these days, back to my own country and trying to re-connect and spend time with my family and friends.
One night as I was lying in bed and looking forward to the following day's time with my family, I thought of what I would say or how I would handle situations which might emerge. I was busy thinking about how to make that experience special, healing and memorable. I might be called a paranoid, but since I will be going back to Rome and my sister is leaving for another country and my father isn't getting any younger, this meeting might be our last together.
As I was mulling over these thoughts, it came so strikingly clear to me that great temptation that has always been present in my life: to want to catch happiness and hold on to it. But this is both silly and futile. Happiness happens. You don't plan it. A favorite author of mine says that once you become aware of it, happiness flies away. That is true. When I look at happiness as something that is other than exuberance or exhilaration, then it is really possible to be happy at every moment. There are no patterns to follow to assure happiness. It is a gift from God.
Happiness gives us eyes to see things with wonder, to taste the different flavors of life and see their balance and harmony, to hear the good news, to speak with hope, to touch others with tenderness and in freedom.
Happiness is something that we discover within ourselves. It doesn't happen because everything around us is right and perfect. Since it is something within, Jesus is right, it is "a joy that no one can ever take away from us".