A Short Guide to a Happy Life
by By Quindlen, Anna
Category: Self-help , Personal Growth , Happiness

From the New York Times bestselling author of Alternate Side, Anna Quindlen’s classic reflection on a meaningful life makes a perfect gift for any occasion.“Life is made of moments, small pieces of silver amidst long stretches of tedium.  It would be wonderful if they came to us unsummoned, but particularly in lives as  busy as the ones most of us lead now, that won’t happen. We have to teach ourselves  now to live, really live . . . to love the journey, not the destination.” In this treasure  of a book, Anna Quindlen, the bestselling novelist and columnist, reflects on what  it takes to “get a life”—to live deeply every day and from your own unique self,  rather than merely to exist through your days. “Knowledge of our own mortality is  the greatest gift God ever gives us,” Quindlen writes, “because unless you know the  clock is ticking, it is so easy to waste our days, our lives.” Her mother died when  Quindlen was nineteen: “It was the dividing line between seeing the world in black  and white, and in Technicolor. The lights came on for the darkest possible reason. . . . I  learned something enduring, in a very short period of time, about life. And that  was that it was glorious, and that you had no business taking it for granted.” But  how to live from that perspective, to fully engage in our days? In A Short Guide  to a Happy Life, Quindlen guides us with an understanding that comes from knowing  how to see the view, the richness in living.