Hi Timi, thank you so much for your answer. I didn’t take it wrong when you said my life was unremarkable. It is in fact when you put it in relation to the universe we are a part of.
And not only is my life unremarkable it’s also impermanent. Just like everything that surrounds us. Now that sentence is one thing when you say it and one other when you actually experience it like I did 18 months ago. I have always been a person with hundreds of projects and I continue to be so. Life without a project, without aims, without new experiences is in deed not worth living. I totally agree with you.
These projects, these achievements and new experiences bring you satisfaction. They can make you proud of your work and are tremendously important for your personal development. But that is not what I call happiness. Those achievements, successes, experiences and the fame or money you get out of them are just illusions. They evaporate as quickly as they appear. That’s why some become addicted to it and some other people slaves to work. Because as soon as the achievements are made they need to replaced by new ones to keep the thing going.
Happiness comes to you when you don’t expect it. It can be early in the morning when you hear the birds sing through your open window, the bright colors of nature in summerlight, the caress of your partner’s hand on your cheek, … and there’s no reason to chase it because it’s always there right beside you and all around you. So don’t chase that butterfly, take a moment to sit down, stop agitating and give it the chance to settle on your hand for an instant. That instant of awareness of the fact of being alive in the middle of the beauty that surrounds you is happiness.
It took me 40 years or so to find out about this. But the good news is that, even though you can’t chase it, you sure can learn how to gain the awareness of present moment living. I did so through meditation but there are many other ways.
I wish you many achievements, successes and experiences Timi and I even more hope you will be able to sit down and stop from time to time so that the butterfly can land on your finger for an instant.
Uwe Hoche
(I would be happy and feel honored if you took a moment to take a glimpse at some of my projects :
