What
a question! Who can answer it?
I've
never met anyone that has a reasonable answer if any at all. I'd
guess that each and every one of us if we could find an answer, would
have a different answer to that question.
Myself,
well I can only say I've spent a lifetime only really seeking peace
and happiness. Some days I feel both, some days not. Many days I only
find moments of both or even moments of one or the other.
Why
must it be so hard a task... I was in a really good place for a long
time, but several years ago I lost that. Those who did regularly
follow and read here can probably figure out why and I am not going
to get into it. At least for now.
So
for the past two years I've really only been existing and trying to
get out of a funk I allowed myself to get into. (again...) I've been
pondering life, pondering love and pondering myself. Just going
through the movements of life, stumbling along and existing. Trying
to have fun and entertain my weary being.
What
have I come to discover and learn? Much that I had learned before but
lost sight of.
Peace can not be found without
contentment.
Life is like crossing a log
over a stream. On one side is a calm, peaceful pool of water filled
with happiness, on the other are rushing waters full of turmoil and
sadness. The quicker we climb back on that log where we are content,
the sooner we can continue on our path of life. Our journey.
Falling off of the log of
contentment just happens. There can be no happiness without sadness.
Without sadness we wouldn't be able to recognize happiness. Without
happiness we wouldn't recognize sadness.
Staying in happiness too long
makes sadness tougher to deal with, we become complacent. Staying in
sadness causes us to become mired in self pity which causes us to
miss out on or not thoroughly enjoy moments of happiness.
Striving to stay in contentment
helps in accepting whatever happens in the moment.
Nothing lasts forever, and
everything is changeable.
We are able to give up desires.
Self control is not a punishment.
Self control is not torture.
Learning self control is
freedom.
Freedom to be able to see, learn
and understand.
Learning self control helps to
learn the world doesn't revolve around us and
our expectations of others are
always too high.
(They are in
their world, I am in my mine.)
Everything we get from others is
only temporary. What we get on our own
lasts, even if only through what
we've learned.
(I must find for
myself what we I am looking for.)
All ambitions can be abandoned or
changed.
Our past is our history.
When we get quiet and alone we
can examine and question the past to learn
how to shape and change the
future we want.
(I've found that being alone
in nature helps me best when meditating.)
I am not my past, I am not the
world around me. It is myself that has the ability to shape and form
my life.
