Where Is Bliss?

I often feel like the horses in Central Park. You know, those horses with blinkers on, pulling their carriages, trotting up and down the cobblestone path. I imagine that the blinkers help to keep me focused on my life’s purpose. The blinkers force me to set my sights dead straight ahead and as I toil on, I don’t hear the laughter of children, nor do I notice how the seasons dress and undress the mighty oak. All day, everyday, I trot up and down, offering giddy lovers a ride in my carriage, surrounded by joy, yet not imbuing any of it. Is this my destiny? Will life pass me by like this too?

Most of us spend our entire lives in the relentless pursuit of happiness. We pull our blinkers on, determined to find this elusive bliss, dismissing anyone or anything that comes in the way of us and our pursuit. Then one day, we suddenly arrive at the end of our lives, exhausted and disillusioned. Our tired eyes tell the story of one that tried but failed as we mutter, “Bliss kept eluding me.” And with that we lay down to the ultimate defeat as Bliss whispers….

But I beckoned to you, and you chose to bury your nose in your work instead of going to camp beneath the stars with your son.

I reached out to you in the form of the sun slowly sinking in the horizon over the Indian Ocean, but you wanted to rush home so you could catch the last 5 minutes of the football match.

I called out to you through the cries of your newborn but you lamented that you had lost your sleep.

I walked by your side, but like the horses that pull carriages in Central Park, you held on to blinkers, set your sights straight ahead and searched for me as if I were a destination to be reached.

And therein she revealed herself. Bliss is not a destination, for if you perceive her as such, she will surely elude you and remain forever a distant, unfulfilled dream.

Everyday Bliss reveals herself in all her splendor and glory. She is in the gurgling of a newborn, the smile of a child and the longing gaze of a lover. She walks this path with us every moment of every day to make our life’s journey meaningful. She is in the mundane pockets of happiness and in every moment she beckons to you.

So come, sit with me on this white sand, and as the sun slowly sinks over the horizon, listen to her twinkling laughter as she dances on the water’s edge.