We all want happiness.
It’s personal.
Yet somehow we inherit guidelines on what we perceive nudges it our way… most of which are not personal at all.
These are tribal, familial, cultural, and mostly corporate.
This vision of happiness becomes knee-jerk, rather than necessary or thoughtFULL.
I think a wise person looks out over their life, as their own curriculum,
And sees what feeds their own soul.
They honor the bigger picture.
They spend elbow grease and time figuring it out.
They don’t plow through the decades
But take a breath to see the lay of their land.
You can feel the presence
Inside those that live this.
They are congruent with their words
And the silence in between.
They look to see where happiness hides by lifting rocks life places in their way,
They don’t anesthetize with alcohol, excessive exercise or more and more work.
It’s not impeccable credentials, another hundred thou in the bank or the biggest kitchen on the block that gift peace as you lay your head on the pillow at night.
The wisest of all, I believe,
Discover happiness, all this time,
Lies within;
Beneath the chaos and the pain and the laughter.
It’s a deep pool of peace
That doesn’t ruffle no matter the seismic proportion of your personal earthquakes.
It’s this bedrock, combined with a very few people that see into your soul for who you really are,
And would be devastated to their core when you pass.
But were made so much more profound for having broken bread and shared some life with you.
That’s a life well lived.