You have to grab hold of your happiness when it comes by and hold on for dear life.
You never know when its coming so you have to always be ready ... and there are so many distractions forcing us to focus on other things ... doubts ... others who want us to focus on them because they don't have it in them to focus on themselves ... so they don't ... giving everything to someone or something else ... until they wake up one day and realize that happiness has passed you by.
I've lived a funny life. Fantastic accomplishments and terrible tragedies. I've been everywhere ... seen everything I've wanted to see ... fallen in love with certain places ... St. Martin for sure ... the Mill Top in St. Augustine ... Smather's Beach in Key West ... Athens on a fall Saturday ... a sad little Holy dock ... a beloved Back Deck.
George Harrison is in my head. He is a Saint you know. The Pope (who is not all of that) should hurry his beautification ahead of Mother Teresa's. "Within you, without you" is one of the may reasons why.
"We were talking about ... the space between us all
And the people who hide themselves behind a wall of illusion
Never glimpse the truth - then it's far too late ...when they pass away"
So it's all about breaking down the space between us all. I think that Jesus said something very similar when he talked about "community".
It's in the Talmud too. "The world shall be saved one neighbor at a time."
I'm a big believer in breaking down the space between us all. It often gets me in trouble but it's who I am. I don't know who else to be ... so I fiercely remain me.
But it gets me in trouble.
It all started with my Mom. She was a relentless hugger. She would pick me up and hug me for no real reason. Just to say "I love you." It was often awkward ... I'd be playing football in the back yard or talking on the phone to my latest squeeze and Mom would wander in an hug me. Hugs are the way that life is to be lived.
Then I went to work with homeless people and people with AIDS.
Nobody hugs them.
So I did.
Relentlessly.
They were often shocked but I did it anyway. Grabbing a dirty, smelly, rotten, alcohol ridden person and embracing him ... or her.
Once I hugged a homeless her ... she stepped back flashing yellow teeth ... said "Thanks Rev!" ... pulled her tube top down and flashed me ... cupped her breast ... and gave me a seductive yellow grin.
"There are boundary lines," I told myself as I hurried to my next meeting.
The reality is I'm not really into boundaries. Huggers aren't. It's my Mom's fault.
So I've hugged lots of people in my life who you normally wouldn't touch ... bankers (even a Board Chair who chooses to remain anonymous ... Jerry Rainy ((I'm still bathing)) ... Politicians ... members of the Clergy ... singers in a Sunday choir ... numerous hookers ... drug dealers ... HIV infected dying folks ... and people who haven't showered in years.
I wouldn't trade it for anything.
Well ... the Board Chair who chooses to remain anonymous (Jerry Rainy) ... but the rest ... well ... most of the politicians .... but the rest ...
were magnificent people who greatly influenced my life.
And gave back as freely as I gave. More so in most cases.
So I try to live my life that way.
It is very Christ like. Mohammed like. Gandhi like. Martin Luther King like. Buddha like. Allah like.
Whatev's.
Not to say I rank with any of them but I aspire.
So I hug.
And I tell people in superfluous language that I love them. For me its the point and not the words. I don't know why I do things this way ... but it's worked for me. So I have a tenancy to remain pretty consistent in what I do.
What I mostly believe in is love.
God is love according to St. John ... I love St. John ... he was a Hippy ... obviously discovered Pot on the island of Patmos and wrote the book of Revelation.
All of that to say ...
Happiness is a fleeting thing ...
it comes and it goes ...
when you see it ... tackle it ...
and hold on for dear life ...
because happiness is rooted in love.
