Happiness is Now

K. and I went down to his hometown, Grants Pass, Oregon, this past weekend to give his folks a hand in beginning to clean out the house they have lived in for 40 years, the photos in this post are from that trip.

They have a beautiful older home, filled with important things, things that symbolize the memories and moments that make up the life of a family.  We kept some of them, and got rid of others, and spent some time together.  And I took some time to walk around a lovely small town on a quiet, cold January Saturday, and think about happiness.

Do you ever think to yourself, "I should be happy, I have so much." Or wonder, "Why am I not happy?"  I think a lot of people with material comfort do, especially when they are just starting out in life.  They look out towards the future, confused and without direction, and wonder, "What is wrong with me? Why do I not know what I want?"  I know that's how I was as I tried to see ahead.

This constellation of feelings has a lot to do with not understanding happiness. What is happiness?  Should I be happy?  Why?  And why should I be happy because I have things?  How have we come to equate the two in our mind?

Experiencing happiness--because it is an experience, not a thing--has to do with resting in what is important, for you, in this moment.  We must learn to let go of what is not important.

Worrying about the unimportant, about things as small as being cut off in traffic, eat up precious life time if we are not careful.  We need to take more care in how we spend the time we have.  When there is an infinite universe to be explored, why do we waste time worrying?  Why fret when you could be learning, delving, wondering?

In every moment, our whole being is filled with a magical, mystical light, the light of life, beating in us--in our blood, in our heart, in our minds--every second, every moment.

In this very second, as your eyes read the words I have written, as I write them, it is there, waiting to be felt, if we will just allow ourselves to pause and, just for a moment, feel loved by and connected to the world that sustains and nourishes our life on this planet.

Close your eyes and feel it, right now.  Feel how you are a part of everything.  Feel how your entire being is sustained and nourished by the energy around you.  Feel how life is love, love is life itself.

Once you feel it, then you can go anywhere. You find that you know what you want, you know what's important, and you know that you are a unique, perfect expression of creation. And you begin to be able to give love so much better.

I wish that for you today: to feel loved and to love. In other words, to be happy.