<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal;" class="">So Much Happiness</div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">It is difficult to know what to do with so much happiness.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">With sadness there is something to rub against,</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">A wound to tend with lotion and cloth.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">When the world falls in around you, you have pieces to pick up,</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Something to hold in your hands, like ticket stubs or change.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">But happiness floats.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">It doesn’t need you to hold it down.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">It doesn’t need anything.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Happiness lands on the roof of the next house, singing,</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">And disappears when it wants to.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">You are happy either way.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Even the fact that you once lived in a peaceful tree house</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">And now live over a quarry of noise and dust</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Cannot make you unhappy.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Everything has a life of its own,</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">It too could wake up filled with possibilities</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Of coffee cake and ripe peaches,</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">And love even the floor which needs to be swept,</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">The soiled linens and scratched records….</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Since there is no place large enough </p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">To contain so much happiness,</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">You shrug, you raise your hands, and it flows out of you</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Into everything you touch. You are not responsible.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">You take no credit, as the night sky takes no credit</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">For the moon, but continues to hold it, and to share it,</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">And in that way, be known.</p><div style="margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""> <br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Naomi Shihab<span style="color: #101314" class=""> Nye </span></p></div></div></body></html>