The path to happiness
isn’t learning how to be someone.

It’s just learning
how to BE.

It’s been seventy two spins
around the sun
since I popped out
of my mother’s womb,
and here I am,
grateful to be here still,
for yet another year.

What a gift,
to know that life itself
is the greatest gift,
and that all I really need
is to savor and enjoy
each moment,
to greet each day
with an open mind
and an open heart.

_While cleaning out the cat box and repairing a urine-stained part of its enclosure, this flash of insight came:

The “best you can do”,
at any given moment,
is most likely just the best
you were WILLING to do,
in that particular moment.

Look past your willingness,
past your comfort,
in that moment,
and discover the power
of what you actually can do.

The trouble with war
is that it makes killing people
you disagree with
acceptable,
not to mention
all the other people
that get killed “accidentally“.

Anyone who thinks
this is a good idea
should not be in power.

If they weren’t,
this might be
a more peaceful world.

My friend said to me:
“See with your heart!”,
her face alive with joy,
aglow with freedom.

My mind couldn’t understand
what her words were saying,
but my heart knew.

I will ask my heart
what this means,
again and again,
like a mantra,
until I know it too.

As I look out
on the city before me,
in this year of 2023
(a year of the wildest dreams
of my distant youth),
I see the present - a future
we could never have imagined.

The river of time does not flow
along the stream of our imaginings;
it winds through a myriad of dimensions
our linear minds will never follow.

Perhaps it is not our job to navigate,
but instead, to witness in each moment
the wonderment of the ride.