The Happiness Opportunity

Brilliant author Paulo Coelho's most recent newsletter, Warrior of the Light, writes:

"We have to take risks. We can only truly understand the miracle of life when we let the unexpected manifest itself. Every day – together with the sun – God gives us a moment in which it is possible to change everything that makes us unhappy. Every day we try to pretend that we don’t realize that moment, that it doesn’t exist, that today is just the same as yesterday and will be the same as tomorrow. But if you pay attention, you can discover the magic instant. It may be hiding at the moment when we put the key in the door in the morning, in the silence right after dinner, in the thousand and one things that all seem the same to us. This moment exists – a moment when all the strength of the stars passes through us and lets us work miracles."

I've no strong belief in what most of the world calls "God," though I do believe that there is something larger than what we can comprehend--some order to the universe that connects all things. And, I believe that over our life (or lives) part of our mission is to learn more about this order, to understand it and live a richer life because of this knowledge. I definitely believe that there are moments each day that can turn everything around, for good and bad. The smile of a child that's sitting in the shopping cart at the grocery store forces a smile upon you even though you're shopping for a condolence card. It is as simple as that. The challenge is to recognize the things that can make you happy and resist the things that could bring anger or sorrow.

How? To each their own, but I've tried my entire life to avoid using words like "hate" and "annoy" and "idiot" and "stupid" and any number of negative words that you can surmise. The reason why I've done this is because I believe that these words are like the trash in my house. The less you focus on reduce, reuse, recycle, the more it piles up. Before you know it, these words outweigh the positive words that you use and your balance has tipped to negativity. You become focused on drama. You feed on drama for energy and entertainment. When you ignore your soul long enough, then it ceases to grow; you're not moving toward a greater understanding of the order when you're focused on those that have no understanding--and no desire to understand--of what can make us all better people.

At the end of Coelho's newsletter, he added a wonderful paragraph about love:

"There is always someone in the world waiting for someone else, whether in the middle of the desert or in the heart of some big city. And when these two people’s paths cross and their eyes meet, the whole of the past and the whole of the future lose all importance, and there only exists that moment and that incredible certainty that everything under the Sun was written by the very same Hand. The Hand that awakens Love and creates a sister soul for everyone who works, rests and seeks treasures under the Sun. Were it not for this, the dreams of the human race would make no sense."

I'm not one to believe that there is only one person out there and we spend our lives trying to find him/her, but I damn sure believe that ideals such as love make sense of our dreams. What we have to understand is that perfection may not be in the unattainable ideal; perfection is in reality.