Happiness...

I could say that happiness is as atainable as a long life. Work just a little harder at your health and you will succeed. Take more vacations, really, and you will relax and lower your blood pressure. But this simple fact remains...no matter how many miles you run, no matter how many beaches you lay on, you can still get run over by a bus, killed in a mugging, have a blood vessel burst in your brain.
Happiness must be like this. No matter how hard you strain to be happy, to show happiness to those around you, to make your life seem better to outside observers than it really is, you can still be devastated by sadness and suffering at any time. For any reason, or none at all. And happiness, like good health slips away.
Who can change the flow of a river? We are tossed to and fro, like fallen leaves on the surface, until at last we come apart at the veins or are pressed to the side and disintegrate. Leaves.