WHERE IS THIS THING CALLED HAPPINESS?

 "Don't spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door." 

~ Coco Chanel

 

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This I get.  I also get Zig Ziglar's words: "When obstacles arise you change your direction to reach your goal.  You do not change your decision to get there!"

 

So I ask how many doors are there?  How many times do we knock on a door or doors only to realize it was the wrong door? Are we wasting our time or are we right where we are supposed to be? How do we arrive at the answer to these questions?  Will it slap us in the face?  Will there be an epiphany? Do our intentions create our reality? Or do we sit and wait for a surprise?

 

Okay, let's consider this.  A surprise can be a grace!  But then I have heard that if you walk through this world by faith, you are rarely surprised.  I get this too.  Sometimes Epiphanies happen when you least expect them, but when you need them the most.  Sometimes people pop in and out of our lives and we somehow just know they will never let us down.  We know they will always be there.  They will be there through thick and thin and good and bad. They will love us no matter what. 

 

"We find rest in those we love, and we provide a resting place for those who love us."

~ Saint Bernard of Clairvaux

 

So perhaps we are trying too hard.  Perhaps it is in the letting go that life happens ~ happens the way it is supposed to. But that letting go part is not the easiest thing in the world is it?  So maybe we need to take heed of the butterfly.

 

"Happiness is a butterfly which when pursued is just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you."  ~Nathaniel Hawthorne

 



This week I have learned a great deal. I have learned to say what I want to say and not choke on the words.  What am I saving it for?  I have learned to be myself because no one else is qualified for the job.  And I have learned from an Irish Proverb, "It is in the shelter of each other, that people live."  A good friend is a shelter. And most of all I have learned that Mary Oliver's words in her poem DREAM WORK are right on target ~ "The world goes on despite our despair. The world offers itself to your imagination."

 

Perhaps happiness isn't a thing, it just might be a place.  A place where you are surrounded by people who love you, respect you, who listen to you, who don't judge you, who care for you unconditionally and create a deep, deep bond with you.  It takes time to create a safe place. But perhaps this is where happiness lives and where pain opens your heart to the world.

 

Pain awakens our compassion.  Pain is an opportunity to discover who we really are...a journey we would never be able to take on our own.

 

For now I remain in search of this thing called happiness, drowning out the pain of the past, looking and yearning for a place to quiet the internal noise and to feed my soul.

 

"All animals except man know that the principle business of life is to enjoy it."

~Samuel Butler