Dancing daffodils and blissful abandon

C.C. and I took Ellie and her sidekick Mollie to our favourite park last night for a walk. Ellie, in her imitable fashion, found the first mud puddle she could and lay down and crawled on her belly through the mud. Her golden body wriggled and squirmed. She smiled. Her head lifted up out of the dark waters, her eyes squinted shut. She was joy. She was experiencing life in a pool of pure, total bliss.

Mollie, always eager to match her big sister, exploit for exploit, followed suit. Her tiny white body submerged in the mud, she swam gleefully around. When she exited, she looked like the proverbial drowned rat. She didn't care. This was pure, total bliss.

Deepak Chopra says, “If you want to reach a state of bliss, then go beyond your ego and the internal dialogue. Make a decision to relinquish the need to control, the need to be approved, and the need to judge. Those are the three things the ego is doing all the time. It's very important to be aware of them every time they come up.”

Maybe it's time to act like the animals. Relinquish control, and wallow in the musty, musky, mud puddles of life, squirm on our bellies, dance barefoot in the muck and feel the bliss!

Bliss is a state of being I have only felt on a few rare occasions. It arises when I'm alone, by the sea, and at peace with the world around me. Bliss is serene. It sparkles. It glistens in the sunlight, reflecting rainbows with every glance. Bliss is the state William Wordsworth describes in his poem, "I wandered lonely as a cloud",

“For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.”

Perhaps it is that in those moments of silent solitude, where clouds drift through my mind and sweet scented breezes blow in from the sea whispering of far-away places and foreign lands, I become connected to the universe around me. I become aware of the magnificence of my world, this world in which we live and breathe together of the same air, the same possibilities, the same dreams and aspirations. The same universe of abundance, filled with turmoil and strife, fear and loathing, possibilities and opportunities, happiness and joy, love and bliss.

Perhaps it is that bliss is never captured. It can only be lived. It cannot be bottled or canned. Stuffed inside a jar to sit upon a shelf gathering dust.

Bliss can only be experienced, in the moment, in those moments when I let go of ego and surrender my fear of falling and freefall into love with the world around me. Supported by the bliss of the universe silently floating by on clouds of serenity, I become the bliss I seek. In love with this moment I'm in, I expand into my soul and release a sigh of relief that I am part of this mysterious, mystical, magical universe of life into which I was born. A majestic place where I live this one wild and precious life dancing amongst the daffodils with blissful abandon, leaping barefoot through the muck and mud of life lived beyond the edge of reason.

Ahhh, this is bliss.

The question is: Have you breathed into your bliss today? Have you dipped your toes into the waters of life and surrendered your fear of falling into love with the world around you?