Imagine a set of people all living in the same building. Half of them think it is a hotel, the other half think it is a prison. Those who think it a hotel might regard it as quite intolerable, and those who thought it was a prison might decide that it was really surprisingly comfortable. So that what seems the ugly doctrine is one that comforts and strengthens you in the end. The people who try to hold an optimistic view of this world would become pessimists: the people who hold a pretty stern view of it become optimistic.
C.S. LEWIS
I came across this quotation when I was a Protestant. Nothing in it conflicts with my present Catholic worldview. I tried to reject it when I was an atheist, but my optimism finally turned back into pessimism which is why I am a Roman Catholic today. The bottom line is that you can never make a heaven out of this world, but you can find moments of relief. This is essential to finding some measure of temporal happiness in this life.
The problem with high expectations is that they almost always end in disappointment. With low expectations, you get the opposite. You are pleasantly surprised when things go well. You didn't see that good thing coming. My life has been mostly miserable and awful. But I have had my shares of pleasant surprises. The low expectations make them more pleasant.
I think this is why old people tend to be happier than young people. They live with diminished expectations after a lifetime of disappointments. They consider themselves fortunate to still be alive. They look to the next life for their happiness instead of this life. They take their pleasures in simple things.
Life comes in seasons. There are seasons of suffering, and there are seasons of joy. If you can accept this, you will feel better about it all. Take the seasons of life as they come.
All things have their season, and in their times all things pass under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted. A time to kill, and a time to heal. A time to destroy, and a time to build. A time to weep, and a time to laugh. A time to mourn, and a time to dance. A time to scatter stones, and a time to gather. A time to embrace, and a time to be far from embraces.
A time to get, and a time to lose. A time to keep, and a time to cast away. A time to rend, and a time to sew. A time to keep silence, and a time to speak. A time of love, and a time of hatred. A time of war, and a time of peace. What hath man more of his labour? I have seen the trouble, which God hath given the sons of men to be exercised in it.
He hath made all things good in their time, and hath delivered the world to their consideration, so that man cannot find out the work which God hath made from the beginning to the end. And I have known that there was no better thing than to rejoice, and to do well in this life. For every man that eateth and drinketh, and seeth good of his labour, this is the gift of God. I have learned that all the works which God hath made, continue for ever: we cannot add any thing, nor take away from those things which God hath made that he may be feared. That which hath been made, the same continueth: the things that shall be, have already been: and God restoreth that which is past.
ECCLESIASTES 3:1-15 DOUAY-RHEIMS
