Recipe for Being Happy

You spend the week following the recipe for being happy.
You plan pleasant things, avoid difficult thoughts, and protect your peace.
You stay productive, grateful, and reasonably well-rested.
Still, happiness keeps refusing to appear on schedule.
Then someone tells you something painful.
You stop trying to improve the moment and stay close to them.
Later, walking home, you notice warmth in your chest.
Feeling good has arrived through contact with life, not escape from it.