Last night my family and I attended a performace of The Thorn. It's just like the movie Passion of the Christ but in a live theatrical performance.

I'm a Christian. I'll say it again. I'm a Christian! I'm proud to be one. I'm proud to say that I love God and I love Jesus. In the past I didn't say it loud and proud. I have friends who are not Christian and I always felt almost embarrassed to say that with pride around them. Shame on me. It's time for me to own who I am and what I believe in.

When I'm plugged into my spiritual life and I allow it to shape my days and carry me through the hours I'm a MUCH happier person. I feel alive and loved and comfortable. It's when I stray from God's path and stray from his love and his gifts that I feel sad and almost depressed in a way. I'm finally recognizing that about myself.

I needed that show last night. The production was incredible! Very dramatic...very real. It was just what my heart and my soul needed.

The pastor spoke before the last scene. He prayed with us. He spoke to us. His message climbed it's way clear into my heart. I felt God's love in that building last night and it brought me to tears. I feel humbled today. I can't explain how I feel but it's a humbling sensation and I'm enjoying it.

I feel like my life is changing this week in unimaginable ways. My life is clicking into place. My path is aligned and I can see it. I'm helping my husband align himself with his path. That is a bigger challenge but we'll get there.

My girls are amazing. Our oldest daughter got a piece of mail yesterday from her youth group at our current church that asked for volunteers to help clean yards and houses of the less fortunate in our community. With passion and enthusiasm she asked if she could volunteer. Then our 2nd oldest daughter came over and begged to be able to help too! I feel honored to call them my children. They make me soar with happiness every day. They radiate God's love and they always want to help others. I just love their kind spirits.

I feel very blessed today. Humbled...loved...alive...blessed...passionate. *sigh*

So we rented this movie two nights ago. I absolutely loved it. It's about a man, a father who just has the worst luck in the world and wants to change his stars. He is determined to make something of himself for his family. Every obstacle is thrown at him and yet he just keeps going with this unbreakable spirit. He loses everything...his wife...his money...his apartment...his bone density scanners... and yet he never gives up.

There is a quote in this movie from Thomas Jefferson. The entire quote reads like this:

"We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable, that all men are created equal and independent, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent and inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, and liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

The part that Will Smith's character (Chris Gardner) focuses on is "the pursuit of happiness".
He asked how Thomas Jefferson knew to put the word PURSUIT in front of happiness. There is so much truth to that one word. Most people go their entire lives pursuing what makes them happy but they never get a chance to experience it. They let other's needs always come before their own. Always pleasing someone else. Making someone else happy.

It all goes back to the catchphrase "Follow your bliss". Follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be.

I will leave you with this. Don't just follow your bliss. Don't just pursue your happiness. Find your bliss and find your happiness. It's time to focus on you.

It's time to focus on me. And that's just what I'm starting to do. ;)

Following my bliss. What does it mean?

Hello,

Welcome to my new blog. It's nice to have a space to put down my thoughts about life.


I call this blog "Following My Bliss" because that is what I would like to think I'm doing in my life. A few years ago I was watching an episode of Dharma and Greg where Dharma was telling Greg to follow his bliss. He wasn't happy being a lawyer so he quit his job and went on a quest to find true happiness. He became a fry cook in a diner for instance. He wasn't happy there. He went on to various other jobs and finally after a long journey through many temp jobs he realized he did love being a lawyer. It was in front of him the entire time. But he couldn't realize he was happy until he left it and then ultimately came back to it later on.

I wanted to know where that quote came from. I traced it to Joseph Campbell. It is important to note that following one's bliss, as Campbell saw it, isn't merely a matter of doing whatever you like, and certainly not doing simply as you are told. It is a matter of identifying that pursuit which you are truly passionate about and attempting to give yourself absolutely to it. In so doing, you will find your fullest potential and serve your community to the greatest possible extent.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. Wherever you are -- if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time.


That quote has stuck with me to this day. It was quite a profound moment for me really. So now I tell everyone to "Follow Your Bliss". I even have a magnet on my fridge that I had custom made to say that.


To sum up my first true post on my blog I will leave you with a video that I think you will enjoy. Joseph Campbell talks about following your bliss. If you really know what you want...go after it. Don't ever stray from your blissful path.





Have a wonderful day. Now go follow your bliss!