Happiness is inside of us–no matter if our plane is delayed or our car lights refuse to work

Mountains jutting above clouds

I am now home, dear reader.  The Lake Superior forest surrounds me again.  Ahhh…it is always so good to return home, to return to the steady earth beneath our feet.  So good to travel; so good to make one’s way home.

Would you like to hear some of the happenings of the last part of the trip, for which I am so grateful?

1.  Of course, I am grateful to have visited Melinda and Cheyenne.  What an amazing opportunity!  Both friends, who live so differently, offered the different slices of their lives to share.  Both gave so much.  Both helped me to deepen in spiritual practice and to surrender to the inner joy which always exists within–no matter what the external world reflects.  Thank you, dear sisters, for the gifts of your homes and mountains and families.  I am in deep appreciation of both of you from my lowlands along Lake Superior’s shore.

2.  When Cheyenne dropped me off at the Holiday Inn in Reno, I had two choices.  #1:  spend the night in the motel room, playing on the computer (perhaps writing a blog) and soaking in the bathtub.  Or #2:  go explore the city.  WaaaHOOOO!  I went and explored the city!!  Yes!!  Took Bus #9 and traveled through my own nervousness and fear to eventually dine in the most magnificent Mexican restaurant on sizzling chicken faijitas and pico de gallo and excellent refried beans and rice and salty chips. 

Even when the bus refused to show up at the end of the evening, I was gifted to find a taxi driver (from Taylor, Michigan–can you imagine??) who drove me back to the Holiday Inn.  It was a magical night.  And it was magical because I overcame some resistance and fear to explore the Unknown.  And the Unkown proved to be good.

From a plane window unto the mountains & clouds...

#2:  Am now in love with Alaska Airlines (also known as Horizon Air).  They were such an intimate airline.  I kid you not.  The woman who checked in my baggage also checked us in at the gate upstairs in Reno.  How cool is that?  I felt like a family member was holding my hand.  (And the desk lady at the Holiday Inn actually drove the shuttle to the airport at 5 a.m. and told me her mama would be our air traffic controller today.  No kiddin’.  Reno is awesome!)

#3:  I love it when things go wrong and you can still feel joyful.  That’s what happened a lot in the past 24 hours.  Things went wrong here and there and here again.  But still my inner spirits were so happy that it seemed like everything was flowing perfectly.

#4:  I love when your airplane can be delayed two hours in Los Angeles and you feel happy and grateful and content.  And then your airplane can be delayed in Chicago and so you can arrive late, wait another four hours, and still feel like it doesn’t matter.  Don’t you love those times in life?

#5  And then you can meet your husband’s boss’ wife sitting in the airport in Chicago and commune for a couple of hours while you’re waiting for your flight.  So then you can both leave one another for a few minutes and know your baggage is SAFE.  Isn’t that lovely?

Happy trails to you...until we meet again...

# 5  And, furthermore, don’t you love it, when your plane finally takes off winging back towards the forest and Lake Superior…and you volunteer to take your husband’s boss’ wife to her daughters house…and then you eventually get in your car at 11:30 p.m. and your CAR LIGHTS DO NOT WORK and you still feel happy, happy, happy?

(Are you all gagging with all this inner happiness now?  Ha ha, you should go meditate in Lake Tahoe with my friend Cheyenne for a couple of days and you, too, will be happy when your airplanes are late and your car lights do not work!)

#6:  You remain somewhat happy–well, mostly happy–well, mostly not visibly annoyed–as you hold your bright lights on for the 20 minute drive into Marquette and make plans to find a motel to spend the night because there is NO WAY you are driving 80 miles in the dark when you’re tired jamming on the bright lights holding them manually in place with your left hand. 

#7:  And then true happiness really strikes when you realize you have secured one of the last rooms in the motel and you are finally lying your tired head on the pillow at 12:30 a.m.

#8:  True happiness is realized when we realize that happiness is something which is inside us, no matter what external circumstances present themselves.  Honest. 

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.   🙂