I always thought blogging was a demonstration of self-importance. Assuming what you had for lunch or how many steps your pookie took this hour was something we couldn’t live without knowing.
I’m learning, though, there very well could be things that people are writing that are worth reading. There are car blogs, cooking blogs, shopping blogs, and daddy blogs. All offering “you’re not alone” assurance, a little perspective and perhaps a few helpful hints. To a Midwest woman who never felt a sense of relevance from birth, even after being reassured that you have knowledge and perspective interesting to other people, it seems pretty self-serving.
Ultimately I want to share the sense of grounding and happiness I feel. After several “growth experiences” earlier in my life, I have really been able to center myself, find myself and it started when I learned to eat well. I am sharing this now because I would love other people to experience those same feelings. Family and friends hear these thoughts on a regular basis and now this may extend my reach. I’m not a writer or an author as other bloggers started out. I am a woman who realizes there is no holy grail. I will not wake up one day and not have to think about what I’m eating, how I’m going to move my body and keep myself balanced. It’s an ongoing challenge. So my goal here is to share with you how I’ve come this far and the way it works for me.. in hopes that you will find a nugget or two that work for you.
Happiness (not just a song by Charlie Brown and the Gang)
We all have excuses why happiness is a goal and not our current state-of-mind. Today it’s the weather; muggy and sweaty. Tomorrow it’s the weather; pouring down rain. So no real happiness there. Happiness is bunnies and rainbows and sailboats and clean, smiling babies. Well, you need storms to makes rainbows, wind for a good sail and sweaty passion to make bunnies and babies. Happiness is a way of living my life. Giving my body what it needs in order for me to concentrate on being me. So I can offer everything to the things I am… I am a daughter, a sister, soon to be an aunt, a friend, a woman, a connector, a professional, a student, a Chicagoan, a mentor. Keeping my life in balance allows me to perform these roles with consistency, understanding and patience. Keeping it uncluttered and peaceful leaves space for love and friendship. Helping to create pure, organic peace in the world and more importantly…let’s be truthful, my life.
Maybe you are an artist, a performer, a mother, a patient, a doctor, an uncle, a girlfriend, a lawyer, an exectutive assistant… I really do want you to enjoy every bit of each role you fill without feeling overwhelmed. Give gifts of health and peace to yourself and you will be able to give back to a fulfilling capacity.
I have been very careful about using the word Happiness too much. Have really been tired of writing it actually. It is an unfortunate thing, but somehow using a word over and over seems to devalue it. Desensitizes us to its power. We can get bored of it and begin to over-analyze it or tune it out completely.
Change for instance. It has often carried a connotation of opportunity, hope and maybe a bit of scariness and uncertainty. All emotions evoked by the use of it. Now after hearing it repeatedly during the Obama campaign it is more often passed over without pause. The words hope and love may have lost some of their luster. Our culture has even started to cycle through expletives and exclamations because the one before loses its emphasis. Cool, awesome, wicked, stoked. We have to come up with something new.
So I don’t want to over use the word Happiness. It has already been used to the point that we no longer value its meaning the same way we used to. I would love for it to really mean something to you and have a place in your vocabulary and your life. Let’s use “H”.
(For Lyrics to the Peanuts Song go to http://www.allmusicals.com/lyrics/youreagoodmancharliebrown/happiness.htm)
The Gut
As a baby I certainly don’t remember being H, but most of us have probably gotten tastes of it. We recognized it as a break from the sad, fat and low feelings we were consumed by in adolescence. As a result of identifying the difference between down and up, I have become somewhat obsessed with being H. The kind of H that comes from the gut. Not belly- gut, sternum gut. The center and most dense part of your body, (it’s a numbered Chakra, the heart center, for you yogis.) The more you pay attention to your body you will feel the spot I mean. All the pure feelings and sense of being come from there. All of them… Anger, hurt, love, and H. They can all be felt in their purest form at the sternum. You’ll see…
