Moon rise

 

I must give a heads up here for a book I am reading by Russ Harris, called "The Happiness Trap"(link below). I am adding this to my library alongside Kabat - Zinn, Eckhart Tolle and Pema Chodron.  Pema chodron says to be truly alive and awake is to be constantly thrown out of the nest.

Harris says the same thing only he lays it out as a therapy called ACT, acceptance, commitment therapy. He tells us not to avoid pain nor replace painful thoughts with happy ones but rather to accept both and experience both in grace. We grasp for happiness and try to hang on to it not realizing that the very nature of life is change, "the universe constantly rearranging itself. " There are fleeting moments of happiness to embrace and let go and moments of sorrow and pain which also pass. 
It's taken long to get this far and I still have a long way to go and much to learn and I suppose as Carlos Castenada wrote in Journey to Ixtlan about never being able to go home to Ixtlan, nor will I ever arrive in "Ixtlan"- but the journey is everything!!

“The aim is to balance the terror of being alive with the wonder of being alive.” C. Castaneda

http://www.thehappinesstrap.com/