Serenity's Minimal Requirements by Edwin L. Young, PhD

Serenity's Minimal Requirements
by Edwin L. Young, PhD

Everyone is unique, we all have unique histories and life structures that shape us in ways that are nearly impossible accurately to discern by ourselves. The webs of our lives are more like mental kaleidoscopes drawn from seemingly random ménages of people and capricious fallout from a tornado, all arbitrarily sewn into a patchwork quilt. Yet, we somehow manage to move through it all and construct, each in our own way, some semblance of meaning and purpose. When careless fate interrupts our tenuous constructs, we tend to feel lost, adrift, and groping for surrounding flotsam and jetsam from which to piece together a new meaning and purpose. We also search about, within our minds, to recover and reinvent a convincing, new, criterion that will lead to that necessary sense of fulfillment.

Oddly, serenity comes to those who, perhaps from having had an auspicious road of life for them to have followed, happen to discover that 'Being', the grand accident of having been given a life, is and should be enough. It is enough just to 'Be' to prompt a feeling of profound gratitude. That one life, which is you, was set down in the midst of a world full of wonders just there for you to enjoy and to wonder at. That serenity becomes a gift with a power that allows us all to take and soak up all of the wonders of the earth and all the fantastic creatures it has spawned over these many billions of years. Just genuinely appreciating the gift of 'Being' and the gifts of the myriad of other 'Beings' surrounding one, just that kind of appreciation from one human being, is enough to justify one's existence. When sentient Beings sense your appreciation of the natural miracle of their existence, oddly, wonderfully, universally, their hearts experience a great, though momentary, leap for joy. You, kindhearted one, are the kind of person that can engender those all-important leaps for joy wherever you go and with whomever you encounter. It is far more than enough that we simply love the people we see, each with their own uniqueness. Our serenity and that appreciation is an immeasurable gift to all whom we encounter!

Author bio:

You can read more of Edwin's work at The Natural Systems Institute.