Gerunding Happiness

MY FAVORITE PARTS ABOUT BEING ALIVE TODAY

signing up for a pool membership that scans my hand and makes me feel like I’m on The Jetsons

fantasizing about long swims that start with a shock of cold water and slowly warm up to become meditative

questioning whether empathy is more continuity or change, some internal ability to empathize that’s fully developed by the time we are five – or capable of emerging after transformative experiences that make us re-form our self-concepts

considering the spectrum of choices that neither the saintly nor the evil think they have but that are always an option

getting a voicemail from Jessica about which Lonely Planet book to buy for our trip to Europe!

listening to a dream one of my students had where he was reminiscing about Pokemon and childhood

eating junior mints gifted to me by Galit at the end of a long day that started at 6 am and won’t finish after my blogging break. they were her second to last box and I was politely refusing but she is so generous…

It’s the simple things, and it’s the complex. It’s okay if there is a large absence, because there is a great presence to get wrapped up in while it’s possible, while I have the ability to just keep swimming, go to Europe, depend on friends, keep working even when I’m beyond exhausted. There are always options and fun fantasies, active verbs and even better gerunds …

for every missing voicemail, I’ve got mail-voices missing me

there is an incremental bettering, a snowballing of goodness to believe in when beliefs need band-aids.

one just has to choose to continue to be actively their best selves or transform into a better soul…there is always a choice involved.

but what are the values that help you choose? according to my professor who studied rescuers of holocaust victims, the less highly evolved have values that are self-centered…the more remarkable are centered in themselves (know who they are)…and I guess the rest of us try to maintain a space in the middle of our universe of self and universe of obligation

“the larger the group, the easier it is to do nothing-
the larger the group, the easier it is to do something”
it’s different levels of involvement
it’s a mind set of empathy
of being responsible
responsible for feeling
responsible for your own happiness
responsible for the happiness of the other
it’s I-it thinking
or us-them
until it’s a broad definition
of who deserves our love
who we will do something for

©ola hadi 2010