When were you truly happy?

After reading this great book called Sabbath by Wayne Muller, I really started to think about a section he wrote about happiness. He talked about the false happy we get when we buy a new car, it feels like we are happy and once it gets the first scratch we are no longer on the happy high of the purchase. Since we cannot rely on things to make us truly happy, what then do we do to be happy? I posed this question to my Dad after dinner last night and a few glasses of wine, when were you truly happy? I assumed he would automatically say, the day I was born.. hehe But he went back further way further.. My Dad told me about a specific night in his life that he felt true happiness/joy. It was the night before Christmas and he was about 10 or 11. St. Anne's Church, an inner city catholic church, had an event for the kids that included goodies, a mass and of course penance. On his way home, which was several blocks from the church, along the snow banks and crisp air, he felt total happiness/joy. Nothing specific happened that night but he was freed from his 10 year old sins and was awaiting the arrival of Santa with a few goodies in his hand from the event. That is it.. Simple, that is what I thought... There was nothing spectacular about his story.. Hell he had a wife, 3 children, is a published author, has had great career moments but what stuck out in his mind of true happiness and joy was a simple event. How do we recapture those moments today so we can truly be happy? I don't know the answer to that but I challenge each of us tonight to think about a time in our lives when we were truly happy or filled with joy. In a small way, just sitting with my Dad talking over wine is happiness. He keeps me writing this book every day..