It was 1976 and I was just 10 years old when my spirited tortoise, George, escaped from the garden abandoning his damp wooden box and chicken wire pen in pursuit of (I imagined) – happiness.

I rather admired our stubby legged defector because I too would shirk the mundane – school, homework, and boring Sundays to escape to my grandma's house by the sea for all the feelings of happiness that it evoked: contentment from the warm sun on my face, salty beach days, the smell of seaweed, the squawk of the seagulls and the whoosh of the foamy waves. Community at grandma's church and the pride she gushed when pausing her cacophony of nattering friends changing into their choir robes to boast – "This, is my granddaughter". Joy when I caught her quick wink, like she had blown me a kiss as she wafted past my pew wearing her royal blue choir robe with a white trim and blue rinse bouffant. Comfort when waking to bird songs in duet with my grandma's tuneful trill, "breakfast is ready" and delight when greeted by the drooling vision of bubbling cheese on toast and hot chocolate in my mug, inscribed with my name. Playfulness pretending to be bus drivers with my brothers on the top deck of the bus, en route to Bradbeers department store in New Milton where we raced up the winding staircase to the café – "last one there's a nincompoop" – to be served toasted tea cakes dripping with butter by ladies in white frilly aprons. And after supper, carefree skipping to the meadow, jumping over the stream to greedily fill our empty ice cream tubs with blackberries – oh, the abundance of nature.

Those halcyon days were ephemeral, and my dutiful life played out: boyfriends, marriage, career, friendships, travel, buying a house, children, school runs and so much more, all of which I am profoundly grateful for. My regret, however, was as much as I looked, I rarely found happiness at each of my destinations.

But life (and George) has taught me that all those glorious childhood feelings that formed the foundation of my happiness were not waiting for me to find them, they had journeyed with me. All I had to do was simply bring them to each new experience.

Happiness was already within me, I just needed to look – look under my shell.