Got Happiness?

Ever since happiness heard your name, it has been running through the streets trying to find you. --Hafiz
It comes as no surprise to most of us as we move through our days pursuing happiness (that self evident truth Thomas Jefferson wrote of) that true happiness can't be traced by our fingers on the logo of a new Coach purse, is not residing at the bottom of a bag of potato chips, doesn't arrive with the boxes for the new house, and isn't awarded to us for having a high friend count on Facebook. We know all the places Happiness isn't, yet many of us find ourselves habitually returning to these well-worn spots. If we posted a picture of our missing Happiness on a milk carton, what would it look like? And if we really wanted to find Happiness, don't we already know its address? Does it make sense to chase after something we can't see, and isn't missing in the first place?
As we inhabit our body through careful attention to yoga poses and the mind begins to quiet, space is created. In this new space, we are presented with the opportunity to move past our habitual patterns of action. We can begin to investigate happiness in the last place we think to look.
Yoga gives us the opportunity to stop pretending we're pursuing Happiness, which was never running from us in the first place. Yoga instead gives us the opportunity for Happiness, which has been running down the street after us, calling our name, to find us and bring us home.