I Can't Get No Satisfaction...from shopping that is

If happiness truly consisted in physical ease and freedom from care, then the happiest individual would not be either a man or a woman; it would be, I think, an American cow.

William Lyon Phelps

It is clear why shopping can become an addiction. It doesn't satisfy in a deep and enduring way. Happiness is more likely to be found in the workshop than in the mall.

It is not surprising that latter-day revelation portrays heaven as more of a bustling workshop than a retirement community.

The recommendations of prophets provide an ideal formula for happiness: be busily loving, building, and serving.

A woman tells a story with a powerful lesson about appreciation:

We had just remodeled our kitchen when my grandmother came to visit. With great pride I showed her the refrigerator-freezer, the dishwasher, the washer and dryer, the electric stove with timer controls, and the disposal unit in the kitchen sink. She admired everything extravagantly and then sat watching me prepare dinner. Suddenly she said, "If you could have only one of the conveniences in this kitchen, which would you choose to keep?" I thought about it carefully, weighing the merits of each appliance, and finally decided that the refrigerator was the one I really couldn't do without. Grandma chuckled. "I would pick running water every time," she said.

Happiness comes more from an attitude of gratitude than from unrelenting abundance.

"The cheerful heart has a continual feast"

(Proverbs 15:15 NIV).

Happiness comes from a choice to be grateful.

"Wherefore, do not spend money for that which is of no worth, nor your labor for that which cannot satisfy. Hearken diligently unto me, and remember the words which I have spoken; and come unto the Holy One of Israel, and feast upon that which perisheth not, neither can be corrupted, and let your soul delight in fatness"

(2 Nephi 9:51, see also Isaiah 55:2).