“We shall find peace. We shall hear angels. We shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds.”
– Anton Chekhov
It’s Christmas! What a wonderful opportunity to share love, joy, and positive energy with our friends, family, and loved ones. The holidays are a perfect time to remind ourselves to savor the simple pleasures in life, to cherish the special people around us, and to cultivate compassion and gratitude in our hearts, every day.
“Life is a travelling to the edge of knowledge, and then a leap taken.”
– D. H. Lawrence
It is good to be prepared. It is important to gather as much knowledge and information about any given situation as is reasonably practical. But then, when the time comes, it is just as important to be ready and willing to take the leap. We must come to peace with the fact that, in this life, we will almost always be acting upon imperfect knowledge. This is inevitable; it is simply part of the human experience. But don’t let this keep you from taking action. Jump into life with enthusiasm. Engage with the present moment fully. And whether, at any given moment, you happen to be facing a challenge or a triumph, a conservation of energy or a state of full exertion, always seek to find a way to cherish this particular, individual step the journey. Strive to live your best life, every day. Endeavor to embrace each moment with optimism, creativity, gratitude, and joy. To do this the most pure expression of appreciation toward the universe, and toward God, that we could ever hope to make. To do this is an act of faith. To do this is an act of courage. To do this is an act of love.
It is quite mystical, really, how something physical – a place, a type of flower, an inanimate object; even a color, a sound, a flavor, or a scent – can become so full of meaning and beauty, merely from having accompanied a moment in your life when you felt great joy.
“A positive and cheerful state of mind is a direct and immediate gain – the very currency, as it were, of happiness. It is not, like all else, merely a cheque upon the bank. For it alone makes us immediately happy in the present moment, and that is the highest blessing for beings like us, whose existence is but an infinitesimal moment between two eternities.”
– Arthur Schopenhauer
Every spring, when I see the California poppies bloom, it fills my heart with warmth. It reminds me that love exists outside of time and space. It reminds me that every single day of this brief lifetime – this exquisite and most precious moment between eternities that we’ve been given – is an opportunity for us to manifest our inner light, to engage in acts of compassion, kindness, goodness, and love, and to expand our enlightened mind.
These beautiful, vibrantly orange-colored flowers bloom every spring, and then disappear. But the sensations that they awaken within me remain vividly present, all year around. I truly believe that love – real love – once created, can never be destroyed. And joy, indeed, is the infallible sign of the presence of God. And every time we engage from a pure heart with the Spirit of Light and Love within us, we touch eternity.
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