On Being Happy

Do you remember how much fun it was to play as a kid? Just throw yourself whole hog into an activity, just about any activity, and see where it takes you. When I look back, I have to laugh at how many of my games were based somehow in tasks I would consider work today, like playing school, making mud pies, heck, I even ran my own imaginary hotel. I loved this page out of Chellie Campbell's The Wealthy Spirit reminding me of the simple fun of playing in the ooze. Reaching the goal was never half as fun as the creation process, yet as grownups the end is just about the only thing we focus our energy on. Just think about how much fun we're missing out on!

On Being Happy
Day 95 of The Wealthy Spirit by Chellie Campbell

"Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking."
~Marcus Aurelius

As human beings are creatures of endless desire and hunger for betterment, it is our nature to always want to improve ourselves and our circumstances. This can be a positive force, motivating us onward to greater glorious goods for ourselves and for others. However, one can become lost in the constant search and craving for the next best thing, so trapped in future imaginings that we discount and ignore the accomplishments of the past evidenced in our present.

The art of happiness is an act of balance. We need to appreciate the process while we work within its creative ooze, the end results as yet unformed, like elements banging against each other in search of becoming sentient. As children playing with mud pies, the fun is in the making: baking in the golden sun, fingers sticky with mud-paint, grass-stained knees, brow wrinkled with concentration, searching for the perfect fine-grained dark earth to fashion into visionary pie. Day's end will come soon enough, no need to hurry to completion, for then the fun is over. Rejoice in the dreaming, glory in the doing, and let the dirt clods fall where they may.

Now, today, with your own mud-luscious imagined inventions, play with the ooze and be happy.

Today's Affirmation: "I am a rich child playing happily in Life's rich playground."

Photo: "A Boy's Work is Never Done," originally uploaded by KellyB.

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Joseph Campbell quote

A bit of advice given to a young Native American at the time of his initiation: “As you go the way of life, you will see a great chasm. Jump. It’s not as wide as you think.”

~Joseph Campbell

Waiting

What we see depends mainly on what we look for.
~John Lubbock

I did my morning practice out on my deck this morning. We finally did our "spring cleaning" on it this weekend and it's finally user-friendly again. It felt so good to be experiencing my little world from a slightly different perspective, breathing in the cool, crisp air as the morning fog burned off, feeling the sun warm the back of my neck as it broke through. You know, it's funny, when I do visioning about what I want my life to look like, there's always a little sun room or something where I do my morning practice with a cup of hot tea at my elbow. But today was the first day, perhaps ever, that I actually had a cup of hot tea at my elbow while I did my practice. I suppose that's a gesture of taking it one step at a time. No sun room yet, but I do have a lovely deck and I can always make myself a cup of tea wherever I am.

The past week or so it's like I've been in a waiting mode. I'm sure there's a better way to describe it--waiting sounds so angsty. But it's like there's something coming and all I have to do is make room for its arrival. Doing anything else could be potentially counterproductive. And so here I've been, waiting. Of course, I probably could have found better ways to do so--I'm pretty sure playing The Sims is not a critical step along my journey. Then again, it did exactly what I needed it to do--it occupied my Intellect, giving it something to feed off of, someone else's life to try to control down to the smallest degree, and stopped worrying itself over my life. It's left me feeling light, free, and ready.

I do not know what my next step is, nor do I know the when and how of the arrival of my knowing. But for today, it's enough for me to let go of my expectations of what I should be doing and just allow myself to be, and in the meantime, I can soak up all the wonderful energy provided by sitting on my deck with a cup of tea at my elbow. Namaste.

Photo: "Lotus bud 2," originally uploaded by tanakawho

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