There are moments when I realize that there is more to life than what goes on in my immediate surroundings. Not that I don't already get that, but every once in awhile something comes up that redefines what happy can mean. And when it's something that is amazing in your friend's life, that's when the 'spill-over' is about to occur.
Learning tidbits of information might make a person want to draw conclusions about the entirety of the situation or about the friend the snippet pertains to. It's far too easy to let your own mind fill in the blanks, and leave you with a jaded view or the wrong idea entirely. Part of caring about someone else is accepting there are things about them you may not know, and even when you find out, you may never truly understand.
I have a good friend who was separated from her family for reasons I was not immediately privy to, but I understood that there were extenuating circumstances. She was recently given the most amazing gift and reunited with a member of this family. The family she has now, and the one she'd lost so long ago are now together for the first time. The overwhelming feeling of happiness I have for her and her families is beyond anything that I could have ever imagined.
Whatever else might be going on in my own life has been affected by this joy. That I could be happy for someone else's good fortune without any first hand connection, is exactly the reason I am so happy. I hadn't ever expected to get more out of someone else's happiness than I do from my own. When the people I care about are happy, the rest of my life benefits. I almost like this source of happy more than anything I can produce on my own.
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