Like you, life has tugged me this way and that. I have had moments of doubt, exhaustion and uncertainty that fortunately always lead me back to what always is… a certain knowing that happiness and creating a contented meaningful life is an inside job and, most important, is possible regardless of our circumstances. I know this is a bold statement when we are hammered by a recession, catastrophic disasters make the headlines, and other detours from the potential of happiness abound.
My tenacity and committed intention relentlessly calls me to reveal the evidence and to shine light on the power of accepting what is seen through the lens of purpose, hope, joy, and common ground. I attempt through Drive Yourself Happy, Center of Happiness, and all my related work to provide spiritual nourishment and vision, inspire personal evolution and greater decisiveness, bump us into meaningful and bold action, and provide a community container to question, heal, explore and share as we evolve.
An many of you know, for now my life is devoted to the healing journey of my grandson from autism. Did you know that one in 71 children are found to be on the autistic spectrum? An growing reality of epidemic proportions. Still, I am grateful for Brody’s autism. That sounds crazy, I know. Don’t get me wrong, autism is difficult, relentless, slow and expensive journey.But it has awakened us to how broken our Mother Earth is and the needs for change of her inhabitants. It challenges all I hold as truth and forces me to question my very essence for being. And yet it provides such opportunity for me and for us all to declare what happiness really is and who we really are on our journey through life.
The journey is not about answering all the ‘unanswered questions’ in order to be happy, but to ‘question all answers’. It demands that we clean up our limited thinking by becoming more fully who we are and more accepting and responsible for accepting of what is.
Autism wears me out and distracts me from so many other things, and yet when I allow myself to be a student rather than a crusader, it teaches me beyond a shadow of a doubt that even amidst circumstances like these, happiness is possible…. no, happiness just IS situations like these in its purest and rawest form. Perhaps it lives in times like these with even greater authenticity. So on the days I can keep that in mind, I welcome the uncomfortable nudge to greater clarity.
In my grandson’s apparent inability to connect and express emotions in the ways we we hold as important it has sparked my curiosity and caused me to question what I have blindly accepted. Somehow there is a key gift hidden here in his unanticipated world about the power of redefining our ability to wonder, listen, tolerate, celebrate, and expand our ability to recognize happiness in the most unlikely places. Those who become flexible with change will thrive.
Autism isn’t easy to befriend and leaves very little room for the writing, speaking, and work that I love. It has challenged me financially and has been reshaping and deepening me for some form of sharing and service yet to be fully revealed. Occasionally, and usually when I have no energy left, I am able to grab my computer and blog. When I can, I capture and post an insight or two that tugs at me or touches me as being of value on the journey of living a joy-filled life, no matter what.
The journey of happiness is not a destination, but a way of traveling. There are no answers, but rather insights, I dare to share my ponderings not as an expert, but as a sister traveler. I express my dreams and intentions in the presence of this creative and talented loving community an act of holding myself accountable.
Even though it seems I have none, thank God Einstein shows us that there is really no such thing as the limits of time and space. Brody, my grandson, teaches me that love and happiness exist on that crack in ‘time’ where our past memories no longer are and where the anticipation of an unknown future not yet lived reside. When I am present here, life is always good and hopeful.
So, it is my intention to up my authenticity a notch and take happiness deeper by sharing my curiosity whenever my heart calls me to, rather than when ‘time’ allows. It is funny how Brody’s recovery process from autism fosters not only his healing, but my own.
Whether in our families, our communities, or our global efforts, those on the road of creating sustainable happiness don’t really have answers, yet we lose sleep trying to ‘figure out’ all the world’s problems’. Life is a messy process, and though the wheels in our minds can spin out of control from time to time (or dare I say most of the time?), we know it is our real work to not work so hard and to become more comfortable with the questions. This will allow happiness to find us.
The questions, at least for me, become scary if left unacknowledged. They just ping around in my head. So, inspired by my grandkids, I will us my Drive Yourself Happy/Center of Happiness platform to ask all my questions and wonder out loud, trusting that your wonderings and questions are similar.
This year I commit more fully to nurture the birth of happiness from the inside out. I will ask for input and help, trusting that there are angels and miracle-makers everywhere. I will more fully expose my real self, questions, doubts and all and with all my rough edges, hoping that it inspires you to do the same. We are a reflection of one another, after all, and I know I am in good company traveling with those who have a sense that happiness is sustainable and self-generated. I am committed to share my journey, warts and all, happy for all there is to be grateful for regardless of the bumps along the way.
We need not wait to be grateful when we are happy. We are happy because we are grateful.
The root meaning of prosperity is ‘hopeful’ and ‘full of possibility’.
For you, for your support of me and the value you find in my work, I am grateful, prosperous and happy.
So, that’s a bit about my Womanifesto, what’s your’s? Please share…[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
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