More than Just Happiness

 “My mission, should I choose to accept it, is to find peace with exactly who and what I am. To take pride in my thoughts, my appearance, my talents, my flaws and to stop this incessant worrying that I can’t be loved as I am.”

― Anaïs Nin 

    This quote caught my attention this morning primarily because of the first phrase that was strongly similar to the iconic line as Ethan Hunt receives his mission in the series of films, Mission Impossible. Then I read further. Ah, I thought, what a powerful message.  I picked a random photo on my laptop with the intention to post the quote with a catching photo as well. In this photo I am frolicking on the shores of my favorite place which also happens to be a university having a seafront with a backdrop of a majestic mountain range. The year is 2019, the year where I was the happiest. But as with all things, happiness comes and goes. "It is more than just our happiness alone we came to gain," a line from Gifts from a Course in Miracles, reiterates. Our life's purpose is more than just happiness. It is peace. Peace with who we inherently are. Needless to say, this is a lifelong practice. And one that is difficult, to say the least. Our traumas, complex or otherwise have wounded and blinded us to all the good things we are born with and born for, leaving us into a kind of unsettledness that runs deep into our bones. Healing takes more than just time, willpower or an intervention of some kind. Most days, this truly feels like an impossible mission. But this is what we are born with and for. If this is the case, then while it might feel like healing is never happening, it actually is. In some way, shape or form, consciousness has no other choice but emerge. If I were to reference the indomitable Ethan Hunt in Mission Impossible, he had this unbelievable faith in the mission and himself notwithstanding that in the end of every story, he comes out victorious. However, real life is not like the movies, obviously. But it tries to imitate it. Or try to improve upon it finding resolutions that are actually unavailable or hard to attain in real life. But I believe there is always going to be some significant wisdom in stories that allow us to find our own strength, courage and most of all faith to begin this work of healing, to accept this mission of peace. Peace with who we exactly are, with all our imperfections and to trust that we not only can be loved but already are. 

I leave my mind's meanderings with another quote, this time on faith by visual artist Jill Steenhuis;

"Faith is the substance of things hoped for and is the evidence of things unseen." 

Dear reader, may you find the strength, courage and faith to fully embrace your mission of full self-acceptance, worth and self-love as I wish for these myself going through my own particular mission and with grace, frolic through it on most days like I did in the year I was happiest. 

Namaste.