High on Happiness

Posts Tagged ‘Potential’

You wrote yourself indelibly on our lives, oh quickly fading year.  You tried us, and tested us, and made us stronger.  Against the backdrop of your seasons, we loved and laughed, said our hellos and goodbyes, poured new learning into our hearts and minds, gathered fresh bundles of wisdom and grew our souls.

And although there were times of darkness and heartache, although we mourned and were afraid, in the end, we found ourselves braver and truer somehow, more determined, surer of ourselves and of our meaning.  Even in the darkness, you wrote poems on our hearts and filled them new understanding and compassion.

You brought us gifts of beauty and unfolded pathways of hope.  Your hours opened to us new wonders and discoveries that thrilled our minds and let us see the depths of our potential.   You brought us moments of triumph that let our spirits soar.

Now, as you take our yesterdays to the temple of times past, take with you, too, this deep red rose as a token of our heartfelt thanks for all the gifts you gave, for all the love you taught us, for all the joy.

Farewell, 2011.  Farewell.

Exhaling, the Great Yes sends its dreams into the worlds.  They ride through the dimensions, each one finding its place, its season, and there they unfold.

From within the fields of time, what was, what is and what will be appear as separate things. Their unity is hidden.

The dreamers who live out the dreams experience their perfection as potential.  But they are perfect nonetheless, having sprung from the imagination of the Great Yes itself and wearing its stamp.  And their experiencing is perfect, too, regardless of the labels they make up from within their illusions.

Then the Great Yes inhales, and all its dreams return to it colored with the knowledge and understanding of what it was like to be in the fields of time.  And the heart of the Great Yes embraces them and glows with love, and joy and compassion, and it exhales, sending forth its dreams.

My young son had been studying the book of Genesis in the Bible.  Bringing to it his own unique sense of humor, he came up with a personal paraphrase of the creation story.

In his deepest, 14-year-old voice, he would boom dramatically, “First, there was Nothing… Next, there was Light.  There still wasn’t anything, but now you could see it.”

When you think about it, that’s a pretty good description of how thing’s came to be.

From the center of nothingness, suddenly light exploded, creating an eternity of time and an infinity of space, and rushing toward the farthest edges of everywhere with the seeds of everything that would ever fill it—ever.  Imagine!  Imagine the vastness of it!  Imagine the power!

There still were no forms, or eyes to see them.  But there was motion, and potential, and some precise set of laws governing the way it would flow, and something unnameable beneath it all, made of intelligence and love.

And now, here we are, unique little constellations of light-bits, riding its waves, conscious, and possessing enough intelligence and imagination to have figured some of it out, and enough spirit to feel its ultimate nature deep within ourselves, shaping and animating us as it shapes and animates the whole.

The ultimate mystery is far beyond our solving.  The glimpses we get from here are incredibly tiny and brief.  But something deep within us knows that we’ll keep riding the light forever, seeing more and more, growing in experience and in wonder and joy until we are wholly one with the light itself and wholly radiating its ecstasy and love.

Reaching up, feeling sun, touching sky.
Something comes.

A promise, a potential.
Wait quivering.
Stretch higher.

Taste the dream, whispering “Be!”
Hear it laugh.
Hear it roar across the hours.
Something comes.

Fell it fill you.  Feel it feed you.
Feel it setting you afire.

Feel its fingers touch your body.
Feel its spirit touch your soul.

Wait.  Wait.  Reach up.  Touch sky.
Something comes.
Be ready.
Something comes.

It’s deeper than the colors that dance into your eyes – although it makes them more vibrant.  It’s brighter than the sweet-tart flavors exploding on your tongue – although it brings them to life.

It packs the power of a barrel full of nutrients; it feeds your heart, your mind, your soul.

It gets into your bloodstream and pushes its sunlight through your veins.  It builds your cells with its earthiness and sparkles across your synapses with glee.

It’s as silent and invisible as air, and as necessary and free.  It fills all your spaces.  It carries all your light and all your songs.

It rushed inside you when you gulped your first breath and took up residence.  And none of your howls or tears were ever enough to evict it, nor will they be.  It’s become you, its quantum particles all dancing hulas with your DNA.

It’s the pulp and the joy-juice of life.  It’s the stuff that smiles are made of, and kindness and compassion.  It’s the seeds of potential and possibilities.

It’s happiness.  And among life’s gifts, it’s the berries.

Happiness, lying beneath and inside all things, seeks its  joy in blossoming.

It looks at each shape that contains it and says, “This one shall be a cherry; this one shall be a song.”

It looks at you, from the core of your heart (where it lives) and taking full measure of all the strength and beauty and potential of you, it begins its outward flow.

It travels on every movement you make in harmony with your unique and precious pattern.  (Which is why it feels so good to be who you truly are.)  If you were meant to play the piccolo, happiness flows when you hear its sound, leading you in its direction.  If you will be at your best taming tigers, happiness will dance when you hone your agility and keenness and practice the mastery of fear.

Happiness blossoms as you do.  It flows through you and from you whenever you tap your potential, whenever you engage your talents or express your best strengths.  That’s how it builds beauty in the world, and excellence.  And that is why the sages tell us to listen to our own drummers and to follow our bliss.

The tree almost seemed to be quivering with excitement, so laden were its branches with buds, ready to burst into their grand hoorah.

When I first looked up at it and saw them, I laughed out loud with delight.  Who would have thought, mere weeks ago, when the world was sullen beneath thick skies and heaped in knee-deep snow, that such wonders as this would soon appear?  Who would have guessed then that this little tree with its thin, bare branches would erupt into such dazzling beauty?

The potential for miracles is everywhere.  Never discount it, even when the world is stark and bare and shows no sign of life or hope.  You never know what tomorrow will bring.  It could sing with untold joy.

Beneath the bleakest of appearances, happiness waits to color the world, to unfurl its potential, to paint life with its fragrance and light.  It can blossom in the most unexpected places.  It can erupt from hearts that seemed hopelessly frozen and devoid of even a hint of life.

You never know.  A little warmth, a little sunshine, a turning of the globe can work wonders.  Keep faith.  The potential for miracles is everywhere.