a happy place??

As I was scrolling through my newsfeed on Facebook the other day, a post from one of the many crochet sites I follow had this meme:

I suspect most people who saw that post smiled and scrolled on by but it grabbed my attention and I thought about it for quite some time. I've heard people say things like, "A glass of wine is my happy place" or "Quilting is my happy place." 

Do you have to have something or be doing something or be in a certain place to be happy? If that is the case, then happiness is something we have virtually no control over. Things can be taken away, circumstances change so that you can't engage in an activity or go to a particular place.

I get that the idea behind the meme is that you enjoy that activity. It's not meant to be taken literally, and is in fact, meant to be humorous.  But I wonder if phrases like that have an effect on us like subliminal messages. 

If they are subliminal messages, it might explain why I have more yarn than I have projects. And why some people are never happy - they either don't have the right stuff or the time to do it.

Or maybe I have too much time to ponder such things....