That’s Simply Brilliant

Read Time: 3 minutes

Seeing and Feeling

I’ve experienced a simple but awesome revelation. I’m so excited to share it. The simplicity of it could sound cliche. A very “Duh” moment. It’s definitely simple, and probably easily understood, but few people seem to practice it.

I’ve realized that seeking love and happiness is not something that I need to worry about. I don’t have to chase them anymore. Honestly, I don’t even think much about them. I don’t have to. This realization is so simple in its brilliance. I see love and happiness. I feel love and happiness. I don’t have to go and find them. Somehow, they found me. They can find you, too. Maybe they already have. They aren’t in a person or a place or an experience. They are felt with people, in places, and through experiences, but they begin and end with my belief in myself.

What I once thought was something separate from me is actually part of me. So brilliant is this perception that it’s sometimes hard to believe it’s mine. I don’t consider myself intellectually or philosophically minded. Strangely, though, I’ve formed a kind of philosophy for myself without spending a lot of time thinking about it.

I don’t fight what I see. I don’t fight anymore what I feel. My feelings don’t have a life of their own. What I perceive in the world connects me to it. Nothing in my world is an invader, and no one is trespassing. I see love because it’s around me and I let myself join in. Trying to find love or happiness isn’t necessary when it was there all along.

For a long time, I didn’t see love and happiness. I certainly didn’t absorb it. I don’t know why. All I can come up with is that I thought it wasn’t there until I told myself or someone else told me “this is what love is” or “this is how happiness feels” like it existed apart from me. Now, though, I don’t have to tell myself or wait for someone to tell me. I don’t need an affirmation. I don’t have to manifest.

As my life shifts, I see and feel love and happiness more and in many different ways. Love is knowing and believing in someone. Happiness is loving them and loving the me that lets me love them. Love is enjoying the world around me. Happiness is taking it all in. Love is appreciating who people are. Happiness is accepting who I am with them.

Love and Happiness

I started really feeling love and happiness after I gave myself permission to believe they exist. Even though love and happiness seemed to find me, I had to choose them. I chose to open myself to them. Once I made this choice, everything changed.

Love is selfless and steady. Once I feel love for someone, I’ll always love them. It doesn’t matter if they stay in my life. I see now that if love is conditional, it’s something other than love. Love isn’t a negotiation. Relationships will always be utilitarian, but love shouldn’t be the currency.

Happiness doesn’t seem to have an original definition. It’s defined as the state of being happy. Being able to be happy is what found me. An active feeling that life can be lived in a state that offers joy. That’s the key. Not happiness itself, but knowing that joy is always possible. Even if there is suffering, this possibility shows me how to appreciate life. That’s happiness. A life being lived.

I am so thankful today for living. Living is love and happiness. It’s there for me and everyone. That we’re here is joy. Together. I’ll always have and feel love and happiness. Now that they have found me, I’ll always have them. 

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!