What is it that we are so afraid of? Why won't we let go?

A shark cannot rest, it cannot stop swimming or it will die, it will drown.

Humanity seems to be acting in the same manner. It is though we are running for our lives. We are being chased and if we stop we will die.

There is an urgency to get somewhere, anywhere, and we do not know what to look for or where, but it is always out there, somewhere.

Unknowingly we have left the place that we are looking for. From the inner peace that we experienced so long ago as children and as the person we once were. We seem to have lost our way and are running just for the sake of running. It is as though we are in a cattle stampede. One starts running and we are following blindly.

What happened to the peace, the serenity and joy of just being, what happened to our innocence? Somewhere along the way we believe that we have lost it, and that we cannot have it again. Someone told us to run and we haven't stopped.

The industrial revolution has pushed us forward in a frenzy to acquire things, the latest is always best, always desirable and it is the carrot that moves us beyond our means, away from what we really desire.

It has taken us away from our natural ability to be at peace, to be happy and content. 'Things,' have promised us happiness, but we do not feel happy when we have them. There is always a promise of happiness but never delivery. Things may be symbols of our happiness but they do not bring the promise with them, because there is another thing dancing in the shadows, calling to us, beckoning, luring us from one thing to another.

We are so far gone that we now believe that we cannot be happy unless we have a thing. We have forgotten how to be happy naturally without being stimulated. We have been told that we cannot go backwards; we cannot go back to the way it was before because we would not have our things.

This is one of the greatest lies that have been passed on from one generation to another. Happiness is where you find it we are told, and this is absolute true if we understand that we can find happiness anywhere if we are happy first. The thought of being happy brings happiness into our lives. Happiness comes from within and is not put upon us by things.

Unhappiness is created from the thought that we need something to be happy and this unhappiness comes from the very things that we are depending on to bring us happiness.

If illness, accidents, sorrow, suffering, lack and loneliness comes from an error in thought, then only the thought has to be changed in order to achieve the happiness, and once our basic needs are met, there is only room for happiness. When thoughts turn towards wants then they turn away from comforting human emotion, natural love, joy, pleasure, contentment and belonging. The simpler life is the closest we get to true happiness, because we become focused on it, it is what we think about and all thought becomes manifested in our experience.

"I can't go back, I won't, I worked too hard to get where I am and what I have; I won't live in a cave.

If all we really want is to be happy, why would we not live in a cave and live simply if it brings us back to happy. If we are heading in a direction that leads away from happiness, why do we keep going there? Is it that we are happy to be unhappy or that happiness does not really exist except in our thoughts? Is it that we believe that happiness does not last, so why pursue it? What is it that we do with the butterfly once we catch it? Is the happiness found in catching the butterfly or letting it go once we have been there, or is it both? Can we experience happiness without experiencing all its opposites? Is the joy of letting go a precept in experiencing happiness once we have found it? Must we turn away from happiness so that we may find it later? If we are happy and remain that way, will we forget what it means to be happy?

All of our experiences are this way, they are cyclical, and we cannot know what we have or experience it until we no longer have it. We must move away from it so that we can come back to it. So if living our complicated lives is not bringing the happiness that we choose, is it because we forgot what it is or are we now ready to return to it?

Is it that we are running from something or is it that we are now running towards it? The trip will stop when we know that we already have what we desire, we simply need to choose it. Happiness, joy, fulfillment, belonging are things that we do not have to look for. They are what we are naturally and we simply have moved our thoughts away from them.

Our things, our toys are symbols, but they are not symbols of happiness, they are symbols of trying to be happy. They are symbols that we have moved away from what we already have, what we know. In trying to make our lives easier so that we have "time," to be happy and enjoy our lives we have created less time to be happy. Happy is scheduled for events and things and then we are too tired. To numb our loss of the sense of happiness we drug ourselves so that we don't have to feel anything.

The truth is and always has been that we can be happy without "things," or doing anything. The sacrifice is that we have to give up on the notion that we need anything and we must be prepared to give up things that do not demonstrate our happiness. Happiness comes as quickly as thinking about it. Be happy first then go out and do things that represent happy to you. Happiness comes in the silent moments between events, when there is nothing left to do, when we have given up on finding it, and when we have done everything else. When we have given up on the notion that we have to find it, it finds us.

I don't know anyone that is happy all the time or even most of the time. I think happiness must be dessert. We have to go through the main course to find it. If dessert was the main course we would still move away from it once we had finished or had enough of it.

I believe that we can be happy all the time, but not experience it. As we get involved in doing the happy things we forget that we are happy until it enters our mind that we are happy. Too much happiness or dessert becomes irritating and mundane, like sex, you got to move away from it in order to appreciate it and be grateful for the times that you are experiencing it.

An emotion that comes from happiness is contentment, which is not as intense. But even contentment as happiness must be recycled. Life without extremes is none life. Life moves in waves and begins on the edge of all our emotions. Once you hand gets used to being in warm water, it is no longer appreciated as warm until you pull it out.

Once we let go of the thought that we will not longer experience happiness, then we will have time to focus on simply experiencing this emotion and it will be drawn into our lives. We won't have to do things to find it. Stop running, move away from the crowd, simplify your life become aware of your environment, learn to appreciate what is already around you and happiness will enter your thoughts always. Find the beauty in the simple rock, a blade of grass, or the people around you. You have created them, they are your wonders, and you brought them to you as opportunities to experience happiness.