The Chase

We as the highest evolved animals in existence have mastered the “chase” throughout history. We’ve hunted. We’ve pursued pray, enemies, and food. We’ve  went after the next thing to help us and ours survive.

And because we’ve evolved so much and we’ve been so successful at the above, we no longer have to chase those things anymore. Success! Yet, being highly evolved has a side effect. Our minds are biochemically wired to “chase” after something. So now we chase after happiness, success, satisfaction.

I have to say that as evolved as I’d like to believe I am, I’ve gotten stuck in this chasing game mentality for most of my life. It’s taken me a very long time to realize that we no longer have to chase happiness. Happiness is a state, not a destination or a tangible to attain.

The other day I was having a conversation about the Bible. If we read enough of the Bible, we realize in many places that it seems it contradicts itself. For example in some places it speaks about being prosperous as a good thing, in other places it says to sell all your possessions. In some places it says to turn the other cheek, in others to sell your cloak and buy a sword. The fact is that there’s a lesson one day and another the next. Though I shall not kill, yet let someone break into my home. While protecting my family I may kill and that’ll be righteous at that moment.

I believe that we should be driven individuals. I believe we shouldn’t be satisfied to certain degree. I believe we shouldn’t be infected by the “have arrived mentality”. Yet, I no longer chase or pursue happiness.

I am Happy. I live in a state of Happiness. My journey is no longer the pursuit of happiness. My journey is just that, my journey. I soar like a bird enjoying the view. Because I reap what I sow I’m intentional in doing good. Because I am a provider, I provide. Yet, I’m not anxiously in pursuit of the next big thing, the next must have, that thing I need in order to realize Happiness.

There’s a freedom in being happy. None of this is permanent. Momentum Mori is not a morbid statement. It is an accurate one. There’s an appreciation for the moment when we realize the impermanence of this moment. The impermanence of the seed brings about the flower. The impermanence of the child brings about the great man. The death of the past brings about the flourishing of this beautiful moment in the present.

The present is all their is. You want eternal life? Here it is! Twenty years ago you wasn’t in the past, you was in the now. Twenty years from now, you won’t be in the future, you’ll be in the now. You’re stuck in this eternal now! Be happy now. 

As happy and satisfied as I am now, as much as I may feel like I have arrived, the one thing I know for sure is that the lessons will continue. The evolution will continue. The impermanence will continue. I embrace the growth. I don’t chase it anymore.

Enjoy the journey and be happy now.

“Our quality of being, determines our quality of doing”  

Thich Nhat Hanh

Love Y’all & Live Responsibly

PS. Farewell South Carolina! It’s been a real treat. Embracing impermanence again. Onto a different region in my journey.