Welcome to the happiness podcast. I'm Dr. Robert Puff.

When I was growing up, one of the traditions that my family had was at least once a month

we'd go over to my grandparents' house and play cards, a variety of card games that my parents and my

grandparents really love to play.

Well I remember at four years old that I had been watching them play these card games and I really wanted to play with

them. So they started to let me play and of course at four years old I wasn't very good but I kept playing and I got better and with time I was

able to compete with them and I remember it being very difficult at first just keeping track of all the rules, knowing how to play the game

well, and then with time being able to compete with them on the more simple games, and then

with time being able to compete with them on the more simple games and then with time being able to compete with them on the more difficult games.

And we just played throughout my childhood often on weekends when we got together.

And then when I went off the university and even when I was

older, because my grandmother lived to be 90, I would often go visit her. Of course she'd pull

out the deck of cards and we start playing a new game.

And I think my metaphor today of playing the game of cards throughout life and playing more difficult

games as we get older is a really wonderful metaphor of how

happiness works in our life. I know there's a tendency to think that well, some people are just born happy, stay happy, and die happy,

and others of us have more difficult challenges with life and really never can be happy.

Of course, I don't believe that's true at all. Going back to my card

playing analogy, I was very curious to learn about the games these adults are playing.

My sister, on the other hand, wasn't.

She didn't want to know, she wasn't interested, and she didn't play.

So I think it's like that with happiness. We're born into this world and around us we see what's going on.

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