From the Editor: Happiness is a Soothing Fog

As I walk in the fog this morning, sensing the dampness on my cold cheeks, watching cars drive into the cloud bank and disappear, I wonder how different life would be if I truly believed that I am the limitless being of pure potential that wise thinkers tell me I am.

I hear geese overhead but I cannot not see them. They honk as they fly blind through the white dew, relying only on instincts to get to where they are going.

But we are not geese. We find it nearly impossible to follow our innate instincts that guide us through life. We don’t trust that we will be safe, so we take the controls and over-compensate and crash again and again.

When I cover my eyes and am alone within myself, I know that all things are possible. When I uncover my eyes, I see images of war on TV and hear the shouting and the cries of despair of those who are fearful and believe the end is near.

This age of change is challenging to all of us. We all feel the fear. Don’t believe this is the way things have to be.

I felt like I lost my moorings a couple years ago. I found myself living by rote, no longer able to sense the magic of life that excites my soul. So I stepped outside of what was expected. I shook things up and moved my wife and pets and myself four hours away from everyone we knew.

One could say it was an experiment of driving headlong into the fog to see if we could find our way somewhere new. I think sometimes we need to lose our bearings — to find ourselves. The vision quest.

My key to happiness is in surrendering — being able to give up having to be in control. I enjoy the peaceful breath that comes with being in the flow. I find it easier now to sense the resistance that results when I try to steer my life against the natural compass within my being.

I’m far from where I want to be, because I still find myself, on occasion, acting as if I don’t have a self-aware bone in my body.

But I am waking up — and so are you.