Dance and Smell The Damn Roses Kid
Advice I’d give my younger self on finding happiness.
‘I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find that I lived just the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.’ — Diane Ackerman
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to reflect upon my earlier years. I’ve always perceived my “progression” in this life chronologically, like a road I’ve been traveling. I can recall the many landmark events I’ve passed along the way. Some parts seemed like quaint back roads, while others have been more like toll roads, all of which have led me to where I am today.
I’ve had (and still have) many regrets.
There are things I’ve done that I wish I hadn’t, and vice versa. Such is life. And if I had an opportunity to advise my younger self, I would do so with great caution, because ultimately I wouldn’t want what I have now to be missing from his reality.
But if I could communicate one thing, I would do my best to advise that if he does what he does for the sake of doing it, he will find happiness much sooner than later.
I have found a lot of inspiration and wisdom in recent years while studying the works of great thinkers like Alan Watts. He espoused many brilliant ideas about the nature of our existence. But one thing that stood out to me was the way he described existence using analogies of music and dance rather than of a journey. It was only then that I began to wonder:
Where exactly are we all trying to get to on this “journey”? And for what purpose?
It has become quite clear that there is no real purpose for it all — for this seemingly rare phenomenon that IS our existence. Yet, here we are, existing in and made from this boundless sea of vibrations, for no apparent reason.
We so often fail to rejoice in the ever-present now as we seek to achieve some ultimate “purpose”, getting so caught up in our efforts to reach our goal or checkpoint that we tend to forget to…
