“Expansion of happiness is the purpose of creation.” – Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Science of Being and Art of Living
Hello, happy Tuesday people! I can feel the joy exuding from you as you realize I’m actually posting on the day I promised. Back to Tuesdays!
Again, I was at a loss for what to write about and share this week. It was puzzling me, because I had at least 3-4 ideas swirling around my brain, but didn’t really want to write about any of them. Much of my inspiration, if not all, for writing and art comes from me and my experiences (which is probably where most humans get their inspiration from). These days, I don’t really have anything to figure out or process through writing, something I’m grappling with that I can’t understand unless I write through it. Sure, I’m disappointed and upset by lots of things happening in the world, but I’ve addressed this in previous posts and I’m focusing on the positive in daily life. So… if I’m feeling good… and I don’t have anything to process… what do I have to write about?
Interesting, this. Having no ideas because I’m feeling good. It reminds me of my last semester in high school. I only had two classes a day with great teachers and interesting material. I wasn’t too busy outside of school, but I still had enough extracurriculars that I was passionate about to keep me interested. But I couldn’t contribute to the conversations my peers were having about their annoying teachers and pointless homework assignments, because I didn’t have anything to complain about. It was a very strange feeling, and I think it’s happening again now.
Don’t get me wrong – I am excellent at complaining. Being an idealist in most aspects of my life, I can find lots of things to fix and analyze in the world and in my own life.
But lately, I go to bed feeling pretty good and wake up feeling pretty good. I feel content moment-to-moment in my life. I’ve gone through a lot of stuff, some of which I’ve already shared on this blog, and I’ve learned so, so much about myself and how I want to live. Best of all, I’ve almost by accident found a moment-to-moment sense of living without worrying too much about the future, which has come as a necessity to managing all the uncertainties of life.
So, what does this mean for my writing? Sometimes, I feel that writing about being happy or content seems boring in this day and age. There isn’t a bit of conflict to spice up the storyline, or a problem to solve.
Here, I will say, I have nothing to “spice up” this post, except the greater and greater desire for us to focus on the happy things and to not be afraid to do so. Being happy is not boring. Being happy does not make you arrogant, and you should not be afraid to be happy even if others around you are not. Sometimes life is bad, but sometimes life is really, really good. If the media focused as much on the good things in this world as the bad, our newspapers would be quadruple the size and our news programs would go on all day (without repeating themselves).
While I do feel it’s possible to write about happy and uplifting things and that we’re seeing a trend towards the positive these days, I find it interesting that writing about feeling good seems to me less exciting than writing to figure out a problem.
In the spirit of writing about happy things, I wanted to share a few random things that have made me feel good lately. I hope you enjoy them, too.
An article
“How Trees Calm Us Down,” by Alex Hutchinson
A fantastic read about the connection between being around or just looking at trees and what it can do for our health and happiness. This article really inspired me, and emphasized what I’ve known all along – that trees are remarkable and vital beings! There is also some research in this article that I’ve seen before in an article about the benefits of walking. I wrote about this research on walking in a previous post.
A cartoon
Because this is great.
Straight-up magic
The rhythm, the harmonies, the choreography… in a patty-cake cover of Adele’s “Send my Love?” Yup – magic. The arts are amazing, and people even amazing-er.
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My lovelies, thank you for reading again this week! May you be blessed with happiness in your own time and the courage and patience to get through what you need to get there.
As a final note, I won’t be posting for the next little while, as I’m taking a break from blogging during August. But I will see you back in September, if not a little sooner, to keep the positivity and the dancing conversations going. 🙂
Until then, enjoy your day and your week!
With love,
Mariel