HAPPINESS

How quick and easy it seems we become angry, sad, frightened, worried, anxious, frustrated, annoyed, and so on. Do you also find it as easy to feel happy, grateful, contented, and peaceful? Because the mind is wired to search for danger to help us survive and to seek out what needs fixing, we sometimes have to work a little harder to see and feel the joy. Perhaps we might balance our suffering by finding those moments that allow us to linger in happiness.

In mindful presence,
Lori

Lingering in Happiness
After rain after many days without rain,
it stays cool, private and cleansed, under the trees,
and the dampness there, married now to gravity,
falls branch to branch, leaf to leaf, down to the ground
where it will disappear—but not, of course, vanish
except to our eyes. The roots of the oaks will have their share,
and the white threads of the grasses, and the cushion of moss;
a few drops, round as pearls, will enter the mole's tunnel;
and soon so many small stones, buried for a thousand years,
will feel themselves being touched.
—Mary Oliver