High on Happiness

Posts Tagged ‘surrender’

The enthusiasm that burned within them was not the giddy vivacity of youth.  No, this was far deeper and steadier than that, a holy will that burned with the desire to sculpt a perfect, living form, for beauty’s sake.  That, alone, was their reason for being, and it drove them.

Yet neither the design nor the rendering were theirs. Their art was to surrender to the Maker’s hand. And their glory was that they did so flawlessly,

Spring was in deep ecstasy now, completely surrendered to her love of color.  She dipped into the farthest edges of her palette and swept the flowers with exotic combinations of hues.

The plants were fully rooted, the days stretching toward their full length.  The intensity of spring’s passion was a perfect prelude for the coming heat of summer, and all the world reveled in her flaming delight.

It was all part of the grand plan, of course.  Her blazing enthusiasm was meant to be.  And because she gave herself to the great Yes with such fervor and such ardent affection, her part of the plan was clearly revealed to her as unquenchable desire, and she followed its call with rapture and untold joy.

I got a happiness reminder from the snow on this first full day of winter.  It was another hundred-mile-an-hour day at work and when I walked from the office, I was carrying a lot of tension from the day’s unrelenting demands.

But as I rounded the corner to the parking lot, a little patch of melting snow on the rail fence that lines the clinic’s grounds caught my eye.  Yesterday it covered the rails completely, making smooth, rounded shapes of their usual angles.  But as it surrendered itself to the relative warmth, after the weekend’s storm, the snow was quickly melting away.

“That’s what letting go is like,” I thought to myself.  “It’s like melting.”

Like snow in the sun’s warmth, like a candy cane on your tongue, or ice cream on a summer day, it’s just a simple surrender.  Who needs the brittleness of tension knotting up their necks, their backs, their shoulders!  Let the warmth in; let it dissolve.

Dunk yourself in the warmth of kindnesses given and received, of the beauty of the day and of the rolling seasons.  Slow things down.  Feel the warmth of a smile.  Feel the satisfaction of work well done.   Let happiness churn up some warm joy and bubble the tension away.

Melt into the moment, with all its wonder and peace.  Melt into the simple gladness of being.