生活中總有不如意，但快樂其實也是無處不在的。當你苦苦追尋快樂的時候，停下來仔細感受，你會發現快樂可以源於自身，與你周圍的世界有著緊密的聯繫。
Do you want to be happy? Of course you do, but according to new research, resting and relaxation are no way to go about it.
想要快樂嗎？你當然想啦，不過最新研究顯示，休息放鬆可不能讓你快樂起來。
You're better off going to the theatre or exercising; even a visit to the library beats lounging around on the sofa.
你最好去劇院看場劇，或者去做運動，即使是去圖書館看書也比躺在沙發上無所事事要強。
Such were the findings of a joint study by the University of Sussex and the London School of Economics, which has come up with a list of 33 activities that make us happy.
這是蘇塞克斯大學和倫敦經濟學院共同研究的發現，從中還得出了一份清單，列出了33件可以讓我們快樂的事。
One thing's for certain, texting and social media come at the bottom of the list, only increasing our happiness by a puny 0.45 per cent.
可以肯定的是，短信和社交媒體只能讓我們的快樂感增加微不足道的0.45%，排在了列表的末尾。
But happiness doesn't have to come from other people. It can come from within - and connecting with the world around you.
但是快樂不一定是來自別人的，它還可以源於自身，與你周圍的世界有著緊密的聯繫。
DIGGING IN THE GARDEN
園藝的快樂
By Sally Brampton
莎莉•布蘭普頓
A few years ago I went through a period of such severe depression that life didn't seem worth living. It was like permanent winter, so bleak and cold that the sun would never shine.
幾年前，我曾有一段時間患了嚴重的抑鬱症，生活於我幾近無可眷戀。我感覺身處永久的嚴冬，連陽光也無法穿透刺骨的寒冷。
Then I saw snowdrops pushing through the freezing, iron-hard ground. I looked at them every day until I felt that if they could come back to life, then so could I.
後來我看到雪花蓮從冰冷堅硬的泥土裡鑽出來了。我每天看著它們，心想，如果它們可以挺過這個寒冬，那我也可以。
Those green shoots gave me hope in a way that nothing else had.
唯獨是這些綠色的嫩芽，用獨特的方式給我帶來了希望。
As spring came, I started to put in more and more plants, until the garden was ablaze with colour. Life was growing through my hands; gentle, peaceful, but, above all, optimistic. If I gave love, it was returned, a hundredfold.
春天來了，我開始不斷地在花園裡種各種花草，整個花園都充滿了鮮豔的色彩。生命通過我的雙手不斷成長，迸發著柔和寧靜、樂觀向上的氣息。我給它們的愛意，它們百倍地回報了我。
I could spend hours lost in gardening. The form of depressive illness I have is biological. It has affected generations of my family and follows no rhyme, reason nor circumstance. I can be depressed when the sun is shining or I am surrounded by a group of loving friends.
我陶醉在園藝中，不知不覺就會度過好幾個小時。我患有的抑鬱症是遺傳性的，已經影響了我家裡好幾代人，無規律可循，原因不明，也不知道什麼時候會發作。無論是陽光燦爛的時候，還是和一群好朋友在一起，我都有可能會鬱鬱寡歡。
Of course, fresh air and exercise help to alleviate depression, but for me gardening is more than that. It represents endurance as well as hope.
當然，呼吸新鮮空氣和做運動能夠減輕抑鬱的症狀，但對我來說，園藝不僅僅是一種治療的手段。它代表著忍耐和希望。
At the end of the first garden I made stood a tree, huge and magnificent. It withstood freezing temperatures and gale-force winds. It bent but never broke.
在第一個花園的深處，我親手種了一棵樹，高大茂盛，經得住刺骨的嚴寒和凜冽的暴風，即使被吹彎了也從來沒有折斷過。
The leaves dropped until it looked no more than a stark skeleton, but it always, always came back to life. And so I learned that we may be battled and bruised, but hope is a living thing.
每次落葉紛飛，最後只剩下光禿禿的樹枝，它總是可以恢復生機。從中我懂得了一個道理：我們會經受考驗，會跌倒受傷，但希望是不滅的。
JOINING A CHOIR
唱詩班裡的快樂
By Ginny Dougary
金妮·道格利
I've always loved singing, but singing hasn't always loved me. I would open my mouth with an Aretha Franklin song in my head, fully expecting my voice to follow suit - only to be betrayed by a tremulous travesty.
我向來熱愛唱歌，但歌唱並沒有一直都回應著我的愛。當艾瑞莎·弗蘭克林的歌在我的腦海中迴響的時候，我會開口歌唱，滿心期待著我的嗓音能夠還原腦海中的聲音，但我那不堪入耳的歌聲卻讓我備受打擊。
Still, doggedly, devotedly, I continued to attempt to sing whenever possible. On car journeys, when my now twentysomething sons were small, they would make a great play (hands over their ears, shrieking 'No, Mum, stop!') of being tortured as I sang along to the radio.
不過我仍然堅持不懈，對唱歌充滿熱情。只要一有機會，我就會開口唱歌。在我的孩子還小的時候（他們現在20多歲了），每當我跟著汽車收音機的音樂唱歌時，他們就會做出痛苦的表情，雙手捂著耳朵，大叫：“媽媽快別唱了！”
Fortunately, I have had fellow carousers in my life - some of whom could really sing.
幸運的是，我有很多玩得很瘋的朋友，當中就有很會唱歌的。
The highlight of weekends with one couple was when the wife (who had sung with a band in New York) would lift up her guitar and beckon me into another room, where we would sing James Taylor and Beatles songs for hours.
其中有一對夫婦，妻子在紐約組過樂隊，擔任主唱。和他們共度週末的時候，她會拿上吉他，帶上我到另一個房間裡，然後我們會唱上好幾個小時，全是詹姆斯·泰勒和披頭士的歌。那是我週末最快樂的時光。
Back then, I would no more have considered joining a choir than taking up bell-ringing. And when I did eventually become a member of my first choir 15 years ago, it was long before Gareth Malone was a household name.
當時的我從來沒想過會加入教堂的唱詩班，就像我從來不會考慮去教堂負責敲鐘一樣。15年前，當我真的第一次加入唱詩班的時候，加雷思·馬龍還名不見經傳呢。
But from the moment I experienced my voice as something singular but also unified, in harmony with the other singers, I was hooked. It was like falling in love.
我感覺到了我的聲音既是獨立的，又與其他成員形成和聲，融為一體。那一刻，我完全著迷了，就像墮入愛河一樣。
And everyone in the choir had the same slightly dazed smiles and bright eyes - singing made them feel happy, too.
唱詩班裡的每一個人臉上都掛著朦朧的微笑，兩眼發亮——唱歌也讓他們感到了快樂。
Although it is singing itself that makes me happy, it is also the communality of a choir. There is something magical about breathing together; a mass of voices singing quietly together is powerful and thrillingly mysterious, almost spiritual.
我的快樂源於唱歌，但唱詩班這個集體也功不可沒。一起呼吸的感覺十分奇妙，如此多的聲音一起靜靜地歌唱，充滿了力量和神秘感，這是一種靈魂的感受。
And there's the unexpected camaraderie from the activities we do as a choir, raising money for good causes and taking our singing sometimes to places where people are forgotten and sad.
我們還為慈善事業籌錢，有時會去鮮有訪客、缺乏生氣的地方唱歌，從中我們還建立起了深厚的友誼，這是我沒有預料過的。
I am now a member of six choirs and, if I can, sing every day of the week. I will never sound like Aretha, but I stand on a stage in front of several hundred people and know that some, if not all, of each song will sound not bad at all.
我現在加入了六個唱詩班，如果可以的話，我每一天都會唱歌。我永遠不會有艾瑞莎的嗓音，但當我站在舞臺上面對著幾百個觀眾時，我知道哪怕我們的歌不是每一段都好聽，但總有那麼幾首歌是不賴的。
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