Finding Happiness

Blood-root

During meditation yesterday morning I reflected on what might be the best days of my life. What kinds of things would arise? Birth of my children? Accomplishments? Applause? A Religious Experience? A day in a special relationship?

So what makes a day, any day, a happy day, an “Oh so wonderful” Day? What comes up for me are times during a day when I am being generous, in deep communication with another, lost in photographing wildflowers, engaged in digesting a Pathwork Lecture, caught in the awe of the Cosmos, finding myself deeply caring for another, working on and completing a project. These are some the things that float up as making a day wonderful for me.

During Pat’s and my daily morning coffee time I ask her what comes up when I ask about the best day of her life. She pauses, then asks, “So why do you ask?” “Not sure, just came up during meditation.” I then shared that yesterday was, for me, an “Oh so wonderful day.” What made it wonderful? I completed a tricky project of editing some audio recordings I am making for a friend, got heavily into an engaged dialog on budgets for our Sevenoaks Pathwork Center, unraveled some complex financial issues for my aunt, and so on. But I also shared that Pat had been gone all day, and I was concerned that my “Oh so wonderful day” did not include her. Didn’t seem right to me. No USness in my wonderful day.

After reflecting on how creative she saw my day yesterday, something I had missed, she went on to say that for her it was great that I had a wonderful day without her. Then in her wisdom she observed that when things are right with the Divine, with our selves, and with each other, then we are then free to have a wonderful day no matter how it unfolds. “When we are in right relationship with life, happiness arises all by itself.”

I appreciate her wisdom. I had been thinking more about what makes me happy, as if happiness comes from outside of me. Of course happiness just IS. Happiness comes from within, from a state of BEING! A state of being in right relationship with Self, others, God, the Cosmos, Life.

I observe that happiness arises from my creativity, my connection with others, my time with the wisdom of the Pathwork lectures, my generosity and kindness toward others, my caring for others, and so on. I notice that these are all Divine qualities from my God-self, that core in me that manifests Life. And when I am defended and blocking the flow of these qualities of Creativity, Love, and Truth, I fall into states of unhappiness, fear, and depression.

I go back to Pathwork Lecture 146: The Positive Concept of Life – Fearlessness to Love – The Balance Between Activity and Passivity. I finished recording it earlier in the week and have been listening to it as I drive about. It truly fits this path to happiness. I smile. I feel into my happiness in this moment.