Four Things We Can Agree On

No one is perfect... 
Stuff happens...
We can choose the life we want... 
We can all get better...
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Facades
There are events that we are in the habit of calling Truth, which have a way of simplifying our lives when they happen. Needless to say, that simplicity comes at a price. Truth has a way of wreaking havoc with all the structures that we spend a lifetime building in order to hide our fragile selves behind. There comes a time when we, in the interest of walking into an authentic existence, must have every wall that we hide behind torn down. What comes forth at these critical junctures is a kind of  life-reforming turbulence. Oh unhappy happy day! The fortresses that we resort to may shield us from uncomfortable revelations about our individual fragilities, but they cultivate in and around us the kind of avoidance that eliminates the possibility that we might actually build any real strength, including strength of character, that would serve us through life's inevitable challenges. And so we find ourselves building more, and higher, and more complicated structures to protect us in our vulnerable states. No one is perfect.

Who We Are
As inconvenient as they may be, there comes those moments when we should no longer and can no longer make the usual excuses for the dysfunctions that plague our existence. The root of our many problems have numerous variations. They are located in the varying experiences from which we come. We have had to deal with challenges which are not necessarily unique, but which have left their indelible stamp on our bodies and souls in ways that produce in us the many unfortunate idiosyncrasies that are evident in our lives and relationships. We can all trace our individual brokenness to some other essentially broken source. There is a reason for every reason that we come up with regarding what ails us. And so for the sake of our sanity there comes a point where we must name ourselves as the ultimate indicator of any meaningful break with a history that has so unmistakably left its mark on us. The personal redemption we long for must begin with an initiative that names us as the primary architect of the more empowered existence we long for. Stuff happens to all of us.

Who We Are Essentially
Our lives are essentially typified as a co-existence of opposites. Our many experiences go into the creation of these dynamics. On our journey through this life we become familiar with some goods and some evils. We experience some highs and some lows. We have wins, and we accrue losses. We become intimate with gaining and losing things... and people. Joy replaces pain... Sunshine after the rain. The varying qualities of the energies that motivate us provide that dynamic tension that we feel as a constant ebb and flow throughout our days. These tensions build and they produce in us a desire for change and growth that force us to become more accommodating of what should constitute our reality. They eventually demand that we establish and maintain the equilibrium that serves to keep us from falling over the precipice of momentarily predominant perceptions. They make us face the truth about who we must become if we are to enter that authentic space where a creative and sustainable life happens. A space in which we discover something called Happy. And we name that place accordingly. We can choose the life we want.

Who We Can Become
The place in our experience called Happy, has its own unique idiom. It's vocabulary is value specific. It's chords are forthright and distinct. It's presence in the galaxies of our universe is unmistakable; it's radiance makes it so. Concepts like humility and courage are well known and oft spoken for their efficacy. These words have their beginnings and their very foundation in the concept called Truth. The inhabitants of Happy become what they say. That is their intention. Their hope is that the words they speak and the desires of their hearts will become acceptable in the sight of their neighbors. Happy is a place created out of the turbulence and chaos of a dynamic called Change. That dynamic comes upon us when we are no longer able to resist the urge to rid ourselves of the convenient structures that hide us from the sun of Happy. We can all get better.