Living for the bliss moment.

Happiness is a funny thing. Are you happy? Sure, I’m Happy. But what does that mean? I can be happy about some compartmentalized situation while not happy at all about some other situation. The bliss moment, however, when it is experienced, is complete. It may not last long, and it may come infrequently, but what it is can not be compared to anything else I know. Bliss is not elation, or euphoria, or infatuation. Bliss, as I have come to see it, is a moment when you realize all is well with the universe. In that moment you are responding to this recognition, not with self satisfaction, or pride at your doing, but with a humility in knowing you are well and all is well. It is a feeling, for me, that swells from with in, or sweeps over and through me from with out. And it is something you know instinctively is not sustainable. It doesn’t need to be. It’s that good. You can miss the full importance of these moments. Write them off or minimize them. Confuse them with good cheer and good mood. But when you get to a point where you can see them when they are happening, you are able to enjoy one of life’s best treats. Like so many things in life that are mysteriously worthwhile, you can’t control whether or not, or when, you will feel it. You can, however, do more, or less, depending on how exactly you are living each day, to make yourself available. I am frequently surprised when they come on. They don’t necessarily come at the big deal events. They don’t seem to punctuate the achievements, or enhance the contrived ceremonies. They come when I am walking back to the car with my family after a dinner out, or when my wife and I are listening to a song on the care radio. If there is something remotely consistent about the onset of these moments, I would say it is in the lighting. The late afternoon light seems to be good. Or early light and gentile whether. I have come to a place where I am aware when it’s been too long a time between bliss moments. And I desire to live in ways that coax them on. But the way that seems most productive is, at last, the way of patience and acceptance.

Be well this Forth of July