Juggle And Hold
A friend who has a great family, loves her neighborhood and is financially set nevertheless struggles to accept it when she is happy. Or so she claims. (To me she bubbles with enviable wonder. )
So maybe hers is a struggle to feel satisfied. Or be sure she is good enough? Or, who knows, exactly? As particular as a fingerprint, how we fight this fight is solely ours even if it always leaves behind a mark we would all like to recognize.
Here's a question we came to when talking:
Do you see happiness more as juggling many concerns or as holding on to one?
Genetics, and a long history of acquisition, means we equate possessions with status. With a new car I shall be loved. Good for Ford and Lexus, but for who else? Materialism's promise is just empty enough to disappoint all those it fools. And it fools us all. Look at the average closet, check the typical garage.
Is that something to hold on to or through into the air?
The last twenty or thirty years has made happiness something to be self-created: through a dream job, by finding your purpose, because you self-improve yourself and get a killer morning routine that hacks your into zen-excellence.
But there’s lots to juggle with that.
Anything that can be labeled can be limited and co-opted and made a commodity, have the value it should register ghosted or corrupted by misapplication and over-use. Consider the word "friend."
An answer rises in the East: Why do you think you should be pursuing anything?
Another sets in the West: Tomorrow is a whole new day.
A better one in the eyes of those around you as you honor them with what you do.
In the meantime I am reminded of something Charlie writes in his poetry:
Being loving is the only cause of happiness.
If you look anywhere else for happiness,
the drama begins.