High on Happiness

Posts Tagged ‘grace’

Wherever being erupts from the void, grace extends.  Its love, exquisite and free, enfolds the shapes of things and fills the spaces between them.

It knows no boundaries.  It has no limit.  It seeks only to whisper the tenderness of the Great Yes to the heights and depths and farthest edges of being.

It is ceaseless and earnest.  It is not deceived by false appearances; everything brings it joy.  Everything yields to its ardent song.

It upholds and embraces stars and souls with its fervor and understanding.  It spreads consolation everywhere.  “Be at peace,” it murmurs.  “You are free.  All is well.  You are loved.”

She lay in a field all fresh and green that stretched to the far horizon, watching clouds paint scenes of sailing ships and roly-poly bears.  Lipizzaner stallions led a parade and grew wings and became pearly dragons.  And overhead the tree branches swayed and a thousand white doves turned into flowers whose petals drifted down on the breeze.

Down, down, down they fell, light as angel’s wings.  She floated somehow up to meet them and some turned into whispers and wrapped themselves around her like ribbons, dancing and trailing behind her as far as she could see.  And she twirled in the air, laughing, and still the white petals fell, each one singing a note of the song.

“Serenity,” one chimed.  “Happiness,” hummed another.   And soon she was surrounded by a symphony of exquisite sounds:  friendship, grace, generosity, joy, harmony, innocence, goodwill.

The petals were cascading down in waves now, singing every beautiful word she had ever heard, and she thought that she could float on forever.

But at last the shower of petals slowed, gently placing her back on the grass as their music faded away.

She opened her eyes, and there before her, three perfect white crocuses bloomed.  “Faith,” chimed one, every so softly.  “Hope,” piped the second.  “Love,” sang the third.  And she tucked their music in her heart and waltzed home, filled with gladness and joy.

All summer they had blossomed, and into fall.  They were but a spot of color in the corner of the courtyard, lending their ambiance to the hotel’s atmosphere.

None of the guests really noticed them, except in passing, on their way to conferences or to dinner or to the pool.

But they didn’t blossom for attention’s sake.  They blossomed because it was their nature and it gave them joy to bloom.

They reveled in the sunshine and in the rain, and they loved unfolding their buds and their petals and their leaves.  They loved the way their color danced with the colors of their neighboring flowers and perfumed the air.  For them, every day was a celebration of being, whether anyone noticed at all.  And they were beautiful in their gladness.

When the frost and snow came to usher their spirits back to the realm from which they had come, they left behind a legacy of grace, a dance of lines etched against the winter’s snow.

Now, as a gift of serendipity, that legacy has come to dance across your vision and mine.  And as the quiet beauty of it sings in our awareness, a wave of peace and fulfillment washes through the dimension where spent flowers go and they echo it back to us with their appreciation and joy.

To reduce it all to chemistry, to photosynthesis, to outplaying patterns of DNA, is to understand nothing at all.

The essential mathematics of this symphony of form were born in ecstasy.  This is the stuff of stars you see before you, called to life by that which dreamed them.

Listen to it play the wind, its mighty limbs shaping the timbre, its ten thousand tongues singing the song.  Its harmonies cascade down in flakes of silver manna, feeding our souls, lifting them into the swirling heaven of its ancient grace.

It is inexplicable, a mystery too deep for mere intellect to solve.  And yet, to understand it, all we need to do is to stand here, in the wind, beneath this white miracle and to listen with our spirits to its song.

Peace flows as calmly as a winter stream, as deep as the sky.  Riding our breaths, it fills the spaces between them.  Riding life’s music, it’s the song between the notes.

It’s the presence of harmony and connection, weaving all things into an endless, dynamic whole.

It’s the grace that underlies being, the motion that makes all things sing.  It’s the ever-changing rhythm of the dance, the river of life’s flowing seen through eyes of acceptance and love.

Peace is the whispering of the great Yes, the infinite affirmation that all is, and will be, well.

It unfolds its gifts to us when we trust life as it comes, when we embrace its mystery and echo back its Yes, letting go of our need for it to be anything other than it is, letting ourselves take it as beautiful and perfect beyond our ability to see.

And when we accept the gifts that peace would offer, it wraps around our wounds and heals them.  It dissolves our fears and leaves us valiant and free.  It bathes us in its beauty and makes us fresh and new.

Its right here, now, this very season, this very moment, gift-wrapped with joy and tied with ribbons of love, offering itself to us for a single, silent yes.

It’s nothing that you think about, I know, or see from the inside.  But I see.

I see how you drop your little kindnesses, a word here, a smile there, as you go about your day.

I see how you reach out, tell a funny story, pat someone on the back, how you listen.

I see the way you notice strangers, give them a grin, ask if you can help them, open doors when their arms are full.

I see how you offer your comfort, how you laugh at everyone’s jokes, how you say, “Good job!”

Layer by layer you build the collage of your thoughtfulness, laying down patterns of joy that decorate the world with their grace.

So I just want to thank you for being exactly who you are, for enriching the lives of us all, and, especially, for being my friend.

So often the sublime simplicity of the ordinary – the daylight, the unassuming roadside flowers – waltzes past us unobserved.  But right there, in plain sight, happiness writes its secrets for all of us to see.

It speaks its truths in the laughter of children.  It sings through wee birds and the crickets in the grass.  It shines in the morning dew.  It’s most profound formulas are resolved in a smile.

We make of our lives such complex tales.  We tie ourselves in knots seeking more, hoarding great stores of the useless, rushing to pile up heaps of the unnecessary.  We drag such luggage with us everywhere we go.  No wonder we are weary!

Let it all go, in the name of freedom.  Happiness isn’t a complicated affair.  It’s the simple goodness of sunshine, of kindness, of ease.  It doesn’t need embroidery or a shoeshine.  It carries the essence of beauty in its harmony and grace.

There’s nothing in it that you need to grasp or reach for.  It falls most easily into your open hand.  It doesn’t demand that you win the race.  Although it waits, amused, at the finish line to greet you, it strolls through the crowd of watchers as well, and dances with the never-rans.  It has no standard but purity of heart.

And so it hides, right there in plain sight, in the sublime simplicity of the ordinary and familiar, waiting for you to let go of the striving that keeps you from seeing it, in all its radiant, easy, everywhere truth.

Sometimes, to keep faith that the world is a place where goodness and beauty reign is not an easy thing.

The din of global conflicts and catastrophes, both natural and man-made, can be deafening, so saturated are we with their sound.  The darkness of the world’s struggles, inhumanity and pain, painted as they are with such wide, deep brushes across the lens of every public medium, can blind us to the existence of hope’s light.

But the light remains, as does the music.  And if you will but hold to your belief in them, they will come to you in gifts of grace, penetrating your despair with their truth and power.

The goodness and beauty of life far outweigh the shadows.  They are the essence of reality, upholding and sustaining it, always available, eternally present, even when we are lost in confusion.

Your very longing for them is the proof of their existence.  You would not weep over the world’s turmoil if you heart didn’t know the reality of peace.  You wouldn’t despair over conflict if you didn’t know the beauty of kindness and the light that a wisp of love can cast.

So believe, even when darkness overwhelms you, even when pain crushes out your reason.  Keep faith, and when you least expect it, a shaft of light will find you, a gift of grace will appear, gently singing life’s endless, beautiful, comforting song.

.

May your pathway open into sunlight and stepping stones show you the way.  May the waters be placid around you, the breezes mild and the weather fair.

May each step you take enlarge you, expanding your vision, your courage and faith.

May you dare the unknown with confidence and find loveliness wherever you go.

May your heart speak thanks for every grace offered, and your hands reach out in kindness to all you meet along the way.

May you hear the grand Yes whispering all around you and breathe in rhythm with its song, knowing that it sings for you, and in you, and of you, for you are truly its own.

.

Mixed with the joy of life, suffering.  Mixed with the beauty, pain.  Walk gently in the world, my friends, and be slow to condemn.  You cannot tell just by looking what agonies your neighbor’s heart bears, what thorns have pierced his soul.

Wear your kindness on your sleeve; keep a packet of comfort in your pocket.  Be ready to extend a hand, a word of condolence, a gesture of grace.  Tomorrow you could be the one in need, longing for a word of understanding and reassurance.

But today, while the sun shines on your path, while the breezes are fair, look on the world with a sweet compassion and let your life exude the fragrance of  a faith that knows, in the end, love reigns and all will be well.