Find your bliss.

Sounds like something I’d read on the inside of a Dove chocolate wrapper.

But if I don’t know what it is, how do I find it and would I know it when it pops up. 

According to Dictionary.com, bliss is defined as “supreme happiness;  utter joy and contentment”. 

Hmmm.

I’ve heard of  A Love Supreme (thank you, John Coltrane) and  Diana Ross and The Supremes.  But supreme happiness?  Is there such a thing, ans what do you need to accomplish to achieve it?  Can mere mortals hope to find supreme happiness or is it like nirvana, only met when certain conditions are overcome?  ANd should we have to work that hard to achieve it?

Find your bliss?  How?  When?

These are questions I’ve pondered while making my way through the haze and hubris of my life.  If we can identify those special moments, unique places, and interesting people in our lives as blissful, then I can understand the concept.  I can recall the amazing places and people I’ve encountered.  Whether or not they are blissful is up for debate. 

I can recall a handfull of blissful moments:

1.  the births of my children.  No further explanation.

2.  Both of my visits to Scotland.  It’s proof that there are places in the world where one feels completely at home.  I sensed that this was a place where I felt truly intigrated with my surroundings.  What’s wonderful is that I’ve only scratched the surface of what I could’ve experienced.

3.  Standing atop Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park.  I’ve done it so many times and, yet, every time I do it’s like the first time.

4.  Flying down the Hudson River, on approach to LaGuardia airport in New York City.  I was flying down to take a physical when I was hired at American.  We were in a Saab 340B turbo prop, and the tower had given the captain permission to take the “river approach”.  One moment I’m looking out back towards Connecticut, then next we’re banking hard left and I’m staring at the Statue of Liberty from above.  We flew just off the tip of Manhattan.  I could see the World Trade Center.  I could look over Manhattan and see the Empire State Building, Chrysler Building and other New York landmark buildings.  I’ve flown in and out of LaGuardia many times since and have never taken that route since.  It cetainly can’t be done now.

5.  Any day at the beach.  I prefer early morning or late afternoon.  Being near the water is the best feeling. It must be something primative.  I can sit and listen to the sound of the waves, and feeling the calm move through me.  It’s always a toss-up whenever I ponder the eternal Powerball question:  “beach house or lake house?”

There are more.  I can’t recall them at the moment.  Some I won’t reveal.  They were shared moments between myself and someone special.

‘Nuff said.

These are moments in my life where I have been touched so deeply.  I have been blessed  and these connections have helped shape me.  Where will I find my bliss?  I guess it’s something you cannot create out of nothing.  Like love, it comes to you at the appropriate moment in time.  It finds you.

Here I am, come get me.