I am a fortunate woman, and I consider my good fortune not as an indication of personal merit or entitlement, but as an obligation to recognize the needs of others. I am also a happy woman,  but unfortunately, seldom is happiness communicated. It is usually what is wrong with the world that is often recited and despair seems to have the upper hand over hope.  

I am convinced that it is important to announce that  I am happy, even though such an announcement is not as dramatic as the woes of despair and anguish. So,  I write… reflections on the inanimate, with thoughts and emotions that show an ideology of ethics and a content heart; a leaning toward the invisible power in a world that today relies on the visible. My thoughts are no different than yours. They stem from that place in my heart where instinctively, the certainty of the Golden Rule, the importance of love and giving, experiencing the moment, God, family, and the value of life are all felt through life‘s lessons. And in order for me to make this life more enjoyable, I feel I must stick to my principles, and hope that my readers will relate to some of these feeling and thoughts and the simple joy I derive from faith that I have in Deity.

 You see, I love life, and I usually enjoy living my life in the present regardless of the complex difficulties that surround it. I know that the present paints a grim picture. Young graduates are unemployed, very often shattering their impatient goals, while older people are reaching retirement and being forced to live on very little. Adults who work are spending longer hours away from home in an attempt to support their families, with little time left to dream. More and more families are being stricken with the untimely departures of their loved ones. The ugly side of human nature is often in the news. There are genocides, terrorism, religious wars, economic crises, poverty, depression, unhappiness,  discontent among all. Even nature appears to have taken an angry turn toward destruction with tornadoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis. So what am I doing here writing about things that seem irrelevant and are remote from the challenges of the present?  All these things are as much a part of my world as they are yours. These life challenges seem to bring with them an uncertainty and doubt, and a movement against traditional religion with an “anger“  against God.  Judgements and tempers flare.  Both anti-God groups and religious groups attempt to impose their beliefs. Debates go on proving or disproving the existence of God,  and no-one is convinced of either side.

 For me, religion is not about believing “things”, it is about behaving differently. The only way I know the sacred, God, the Divine, is through experience. It is not intellect.You cannot debate what touches your heart, what you feel and what you experience. For instance, you may hear certain music that takes you into a different world down memory lane…you feel the nostalgia or the ecstasy in the memory it unfolds. You cannot debate that feeling. Another example; you see your child, eyes twinkling looking at you with a beaming smile ready to kick that soccer ball and saying “look at me daddy” and you are immeasurably and profoundly  touched to the point of appetite suppressing gut  tingling satisfaction. How can you debate that? Or, your eyes drift across a crowded room to meet your lover’s gaze and you are transported into shared  euphoria. There’s no debate there either. Now I’m sure you can explain to me that scientifically, these responses are chemical reactions in the human brain, or you can give me a social or psychological explanation as to why they touch my heart, but what would it matter? I know what I know. I know what I feel. And I experience the Divine in the same way as I experience memory, music and love. In a heart-centered, instinctive way, definitely not an intellectual way.   As Benjamin Franklin said,  “The way to see faith is to shut  the eye of reason.” I am convinced that there is a God deposited in each of us…and that our souls reflect our deeds in the hereafter.  I cannot prove to you that there is a life hereafter, but neither can I disprove it.  I can tell you this.  I know what I feel. I know what I know. I am a happy woman.