Life and Spirit Exist Within Us All

Al Green wrote a song about "Love and Happiness" and although the beat is soothing and so are the intent of the words, do love and happiness really exist? They exist as separate entities but do they coexist?
In loss, life, events, celebrations, and our everyday, we encounter people and create networks, don't we? The most valuable of all step into our circle of trust and we learn to move among one another with our limbs outstretched and our hearts set to "open". We form relationships which stem from the connecting of two souls under one love of hope and reciprocation even though there are those we lose, fall away or were temporary gifts we so needed. We learn from one another as do babies when they begin to learn the environment they are adapting to and the people they look to for survival. They lift their heads and scout their surroundings for newness, they focus their sense of sight in search of color and objects and trust, and they feel according to their core.
If we could go back and act according to only what we feel, would we? Or may I suggest that we already have this opportunity and really, never lost this innocent ability to live according to our internal senses.

Close your eyes and think of a particular challenge you're currently faced with. Take four deep breaths and visualize it. Picture it as a flood of water pushing against a water dam. Take another deep breathe and slowly release as you simultaneously open the flood gates. Imagine that the challenge is also gushing out and being freed of all pressure and expectation. Continue a relaxed state of breathing and feel the water permeate from your limbs, out of your head, to the tips of your fingers and toes...as all of the water falls from your body and into the Earth.

Listen to the sounds you hear. See what your heart wants. Feel what your gut and your inner voice say. Listen. And act. Don't apologize, don't make excuses. Just act. Because when you act according to truth and purity, you are in your truest form of self. And no one will have a right to question you and your ethic. I believe that when you live true to yourself, you are living true for others as well. No animosity and no contempt. Misinterpretations and consequences? Sure. The upside? Man, you. are. you.
And hopefully, love and happiness will fall into place whether it's one at a time or gradual...it exists within you.