Consider how much time we spend rearranging our lives in the name of comfort, in the never-ending search for "getting things right" so that finally we can relax and be happy. Is it possible that we’re making a big mistake in confusing our comfort for happiness?
Perhaps the secret to unshakable happiness lies in moving beyond defining it as getting exactly what we want, or in demanding comfort at any cost. Maybe true happiness arrives only when we drop our plans and expectations, when we stop trying to rearrange our lives so they approximate our ideal of perfection.
Maybe happiness is something more. Maybe it is best understood as a deep and abiding love for our lives just as they are. For the whole big-bang play of life: the joys and the sorrows, the births and the deaths, the victories and defeats. A love of rain as well as sun, a thankfulness for mistakes that teach us how to live, an appreciation for bumps and bruises and smiles and friendships, all rolled up together in this messy play of life.
What would happen if we let go of our need for comfort and instead befriended the happiness that shines not because we've carefully arranged our outer world just so, but rather because we've let go of expectations and made peace with things just as they are? Is it possible that then we might rest in a deeper sense of faithfulness and trust in the rightness, the perfection, of life just as it is? Even when it's messy and confusing and uncomfortable?
Perhaps we can cultivate a flavor of happiness that helps us see how beautifully perfect life is right now, even when we can't quite piece together how. A happiness that trusts in something far deeper than our small eyes can see, and that can sustain us even when our vision is weak. A happiness with deep roots, with broad vision and with unshakable love that carries us with openness and delight along every path we take.
I like this redefinition of happiness. I smile when I consider the possibility of cultivating contentment amid the chaos, not in spite of it. It offers us so much hope. It's messier, but more beautiful, too. And it feels honest, and quite possibly even do-able. And so very filled with love.
This is so beautifully stated and just what I needed to hear this morning. Thank you again and again for all your wonderful, deep, inspirational quotes and words that always move me. In this time of turmoil in our country (world) we need this perspective to stay front and center. Thank you Claudia for guiding us once again towards peace, towards calmness, towards love.
👏👏👏