A daily choice: 

self-indulgence or simple joys.

Running an errand at a mall, we were a group of nuns looking after one another and laughing. And observing. I saw a mother hugging her crying child, a young woman laughing along with the blind man who held her arm. 

But mainly I saw self-engrossed people amidst the upscale shops and numerous eateries.

A woman mindlessly eating her lunch while flipping through a catalog. A well-dressed man striding by while venting angrily into his earbuds. A couple looking at the store displays while ignoring each other. People were spending money, shopping, dining—doing things that were supposed to make them happy. But they weren’t. Perhaps they sensed the futility of searching for happiness in possessions and self-indulgence. 

No happiness there. 

Where was it?

In the laughter between friends. In the eyes of a mother and her child. On the face of an elderly, blind man laughing with his companion. The observed happiness was not from any self-indulgence. It was from friendship and caring for others.