This, Right Here Already, Is That Thing You Seek

I read a beautiful piece of art today. Words of acrylic. Sentences of color. Paragraphs of canvas. And as I read, I thought, “Yes! This!” and then I thought “I must go… I must do… I must be more…” And then I stopped.

Because I was already there. The thing I was reading, the inspiration I felt, that was the thing I wanted. I believed it was the path, but it was not. It was already the destination. One of many.

We tend to read or hear or watch or do something inspiring and think to ourselves “Wow, I want to go…”, “I want to do…”, “I want to be more…” because we’re looking for the happiness that we think this something has suddenly lit the way to. But we’re wrong. The happiness is not there, in the going or the doing or the being, in the future. That happiness is always one step ahead of us.

No, the happiness is already here. When we read or hear or watch something inspirational or beautiful or magical, that is the thing already. It is already the happiness.

The irony is that we tend to take up this thing in our hand, we swirl, we smell. And then pass the cup down the line, because we think the swirl and the smell are all we needed in order to get up and go. After all, we want the vineyard. Truth: the wine is the sweetness of the vineyard. If you have it, drink it. And, yes, the work is…