You may think you are not having a great time on Earth. You may have convinced yourself – and the world convinced you – that under your circumstances, you must be having a difficult time, and so you have taken on the robes of despair or anger or victimhood. If you could know ahead of time that your very specific circumstances have merit and would have a good outcome, why, you could have been enjoying yourself all the while.
I mean, what a story you are in, what an amazing plot, and what a myriad of possibilities! In any case, your present circumstances do not last forever, and, soon enough, you will be under different circumstances. You may already be in new circumstances, and, yet, what may you be doing but still mourning the past?
Look, you know yourself. Even under marvelous circumstances, you continue to worry, because, by and by, these marvelous circumstances won't stay by your side, and what then? You guess that more misery will stake out its territory in your life, and then you are up the creek once again.
Isn’t your modus operandi something like this: Either you are waiting to get out of misery or danger or whatever you choose to call it, or you are waiting for the axe to fall and lose your little while of happiness. This way of thinking will keep you moored in helplessness.
In the same circumstances, free from worry, you could really enjoy the Dance of Life, one twirl after the other, a twirl of the dice, and a twirl of the Dance of Life. What amazing or preposterous denouements are around every corner. Sure, life flip-flops. Life is always on the move, and you might as well dance with it. Be a willing partner. Be light of foot. This is your life right where it is until it is some place else, or you are.
It’s as if you rented a tuxedo, and you wear it in good health. However you are dressed, you are still you. You do not change with the outfits you wear. The external is only the external. It is definitely not eternal. Whatever outfit you change into, only the wrappings around your soul are changed or rearranged.
In the world, change is inevitable. This is the nature of the world.
You can live in a tiny house, and you are you. You can live in a mansion, and you are still you.
Regardless of your circumstances, you are as happy as you allow yourself to be. Circumstances are only circumstances, a coat you wear according to the weather.
Of course, it’s nice to be on Easy Street. Once you get over the wonder of living on Easy Street, however, you are still only as happy as you allow yourself to be.
Sooner or later, it comes down to you and the happiness quota you allot yourself.
One way to get to more happiness, regardless of your circumstances, is to come from a different angle. Have a go at thinking about the bits of happiness you can impart to another. Underline this: One way to happiness is to stop thinking about yourself. Too much attention on yourself is like overeating. You plaster yourself to how and what you are feeling. You gulp it all down. Believe Me, focus on your circumstances is meant to be finite, certainly not infinite.
It is a little painful to think about the time and attention you squander on yourself. You steep your Tea of Life with worry when you could be smiling at someone else.
When you think of someone else, you are broadening your horizon and theirs. Your thoughts reach. Your thoughts are received, sometimes actually, and sometimes unbeknownst to you or the person your thoughts are on.
Here’s what I ask you to do. If you are suffering, no matter what the reason, think about someone else in a way that will whisk away your suffering. Uplift another's heart, no matter how lightly, and you will also uplift your heart, and so onto the world.