The New York Times had an interesting article the other day, titled "Happiness for Ten Dollars or Less?" The reason it was so interesting was that it was an article on good but inexpensive wines. Not exactly my idea of true happiness, but I guess to each his own.

Or not. Personally, I really think that even suggesting that happiness comes in a bottle is way out of touch with reality, but I do understand that it's just a headline.

Still, it got me thinking about what really constitutes happiness, and how we think about happiness in terms of something we can "find" or "get," or even "buy."

I think the problem lies in the idea that happiness is in any way "out there." Because when happiness is something we don't have, and something we can obtain in some way, we start looking for it. And when we start looking for happiness, we start realizing how much we don't have it, so we look harder and realize even more how unhappy we are.

Maybe the answer to this is in the word "unhappy." We're not happy. We're not "non-happy," which would mean we don't "have" happiness. What we are is not being happy. And surely, if we can be unhappy, we can be happy, without spending under $10 for a bottle of wine, without buying ourselves anything at all to "make us happy."

The truth is, happiness is not something we buy, it's something we be. We decide what happiness means for us, and we decide what conditions must exist for us to "be happy." For some of us, maybe wine collecting, or bargain shopping, is a fulfilling habit, and we can really "buy happiness for ten dollars or less."

For some people, happiness is having a quiet afternoon once a week to watch an old movie with a cat in their lap. For some, it's working hard enough to be tired and not hard enough to be exhausted.

For all of us, I think happiness comes from being fulfilled and having the things in our lives that really matter. What those things are varies from person to person, of course, but I think the basics remain the same from person to person.

If we're doing something we love with most of our time, if we're spending time with people who make us feel good, if we have spare time for a hobby or just to hang out, and of course if all of our physical needs are met, I think we have a fairly good chance of being happy if we choose to.

And with that issue of choice in there, I guess that makes it a little more complicated, but yes, I think there is an element of choice involved in being happy. We must decide what it will take for us to be happy, and when we accomplish that, we have to be happy.

What can you do to find happiness for ten dollars or less?

• Be clear about what happiness would mean for you.
• Find a way to be happy with what you have.
• Continue to go after what you want in your life.