Perspective

Reflections

This short poem encourages you to treasure whatever happiness life offers. Instead of lamenting how once-thriving relationships or good times vanished or faded away, the poet suggests finding comfort in the simple fact that those moments happened—and brought joy.

The imagery is tactile and even mundane: store happiness on a high shelf, shield it, then take it down from the shelf and look at it. These aren’t instructions for getting more happiness—they’re everyday reminders to value what you’ve already been given. At its core, the poem is about gratitude.

Using your mind to focus on happiness

That message deepens in the final stanza. Happy experiences may not last forever, but we can strengthen their impact by using our minds to focus on them. Human beings have a natural tendency to focus on the negative, so it can be a mental effort to focus on the happier aspects of our lives.

Happiness, the poet reminds us, is “worth more than anything money can buy.” Keeping that in mind can bring peace—especially when we must face change or when it’s time to let go.

Affirmation

I have the option to focus on happy memories and positive aspects of my life, even if it takes effort.