Acceptance
of what I discover
my self to be
brings me peace of mind.

To experience
Joy and Happiness
is the purpose of life,
so don’t
focus on anything else;
Focus only
on striving
to experience
Joy and Happiness.

I am enjoying
holding a hot steam iron
gently pressing it downwards
and moving it across
a white cotton crumpled coat
which becomes neatly flat
as I iron.

When I have completed ironing the coat
and I put the coat on a hangar
and I see the coat neatly flat
I feel happy.

When I think I 'know'
I stop asking questions,
I stop discovering
what an unknown Destiny
is bringing surprisingly
in the present-moment.

When I accept
the good in the situations
Destiny has brought me,
I feel happy
with peace of mind.

When I accept
the bad in the situations
Destiny has brought me,
I feel unhappy
with peace of mind.

When people say
“I know you”
what does that mean?
Do they have a concept of you
in their mind
which they have reified
as their reality?
Does the real you
exist only in the minds of others?
Or, are you something
which precedes the concepts of others?
Is the authentic you
only discoverable by you
by introspective self-awareness
and self-discovery?

When I try to control
people and things
with power
and forceful measures
I experience frustration, sorrow and suffering.

When I accept
the situations Destiny has brought me,
and strive to discover opportunities
to be joyful and happy
within these situations,
and strive to discover opportunities
to improve these situations
to increase my joy and happiness,
then I experience joy and happiness.

The full moon
looks pretty
in the night sky
backgrounded by stars.

Is science
useful as information
to develop philosophical-wisdom
about how to achieve
joy and happiness?

For example,
if medical-science says
fatty-cholesterol is bad for health,
is philosophical-wisdom
to eat less fat
to improve health
to optimise joy and happiness?

Should a leader
have the best ideas
and be able
to recognise the best ideas?

Is self-awareness of
my emotions and thoughts
necessary
to improve my emotions and thoughts
into wisdom
about how to achieve
my joy and happiness?

If my joy and happiness
depends
on telling someone "I love you",
should I tell them?
And if they reject me
will I still have
the joy and happiness
of having expressed my love?

Is the challenge of living
to build a Kingdom of Heaven
here on Earth?
By striving to discover
in our current situation
opportunities for joy and happiness,
and striving to discover
opportunities to improve our current situation
to increase our joy and happiness?

I just watched a news report:
13 million people are hungry
in the Philippines
and cannot afford three meals a day.
I watched a grandmother
picking through others’ garbage bags
to find food waste:
She found a half-eaten chicken
partially-decomposed
and took it home to feed her grandchildren
for whom she is the sole provider
after her husband died
and as the children’s parents look for work.
The brave responsible grandmother says
“Life is hard”
as she smells the stench of the decomposing chicken
then boils it to **** the bacteria
then fries it with a little onion
to improve the rotten taste.
Her four hungry grandchildren
sit quietly around the small dining table
eating the partially-decomposed chicken.
The heroic grandmother says
“the stench of the food
is something you never get used to
but life is hard
it’s either rotting food
or nothing.”

I was left thinking:
Is there something we can do
to feed the hungry
in the Philippines?
Is there something we can do
to feed the hungry
around the world?

My Destiny
only happens with me in it
because all my actions have consequences
which affect my joy and happiness.
So I can make my own luck
by choosing wise actions
which produce consequences
which bring me joy and happiness.

I have chosen a purpose
for living:
I am
striving to achieve
joy and happiness
in the present-moment,
for myself and others.

I prepare for the worst
so that when it comes
I have wisdom
about what do do
to survive
and decrease my suffering
and increase my joy and happiness.

Soul,
Body,
Consciousness
and Mystery?

I take responsibility
for leading
my relationships
towards joy and happiness
for me and the other person.

Is living
striving to discover
the answers
to the questions
in my mind
about how to achieve
joy and happiness
within an unknown Destiny?

I will love myself
and I will love you
and then maybe
you will love me too.

In an ideal
joy and happiness society
would every person
be wise and virtuous?
And therefore
would every person
be able to trust
every other person?

Is there is no such thing as 'Time'?
Is there only
our experience
of the present-moment
changing?
Is what we call 'Time'
the changing of our experience
of clocks as they tick
in the present-moment?

Destiny seems
most of the time
to progress
not in quantum-leaps
but in effort-won increments.

I am
molecules of water
flowing
within the river
of Destiny.

Poetry is like flowers
growing in the trees;
Poetry is like flowers
fragrant in the leaves;
Poetry brings sweetness
to philosophy;
Poetry leads people to think
what life means?

You have so many emotions
twinkling on your beautiful face
like stars in the night sky,
and I seek to explore
every single twinkling emotion
for the rest of my life.

What my consciousness is
and how my consciousness comes to be
is a mystery
to me.
Do my emotions and thoughts
correlate with
my brain cells’ activity and formation?
When my emotions and thoughts change
does my brain change?

Lorikeets on my windowsill
Tweeting out a tune
Lorikeets on my windowsill
Green, red, yellow and blue
Lorikeets on my windowsill
Eating a bowl of seeds
Lorikeets on my windowsill
Make me feel happy.

Does a joyful and happy romance
require trust
between partners?

When trauma from my past
is bothering my mind
I re-focus on achieving joy and happiness
in the present-moment.

Boom! Crash! Crunch!
A bombshell hits the top floor
of a concrete house
in an opposition held area of Syria.
Two childhood brothers
sheltering in the room
are now buried under rubble,
the sharp heavy concrete chunks falling
tearing their flesh and
breaking their bones.
The 10 year old brother
struggles to raise his head
above the concrete and
sees the hand of his 3 year old brother
sticking out of the rubble,
he screams for “Heeellllppp!”

Is living
more joyful and happy
when I am
doing what I can
from where I am
with what I have
to achieve joy and happiness?

I am
eating a slice of hot aromatic pizza
and as I gently chew
I savour the taste of
red salami slices,
folded thin sheets of pink ham,
red diced tomatoes,
seedless black olives,
and slices of brown mushrooms;

As I experience
the delicious tastes
of pizza
I am Pizza-Happy.

When my emotions and thoughts are racing
out of control,
I record a voice diary
using my computer microphone;
I express freely
every emotion and thought
as it arises in my mind
without censorship;
I cry, sob, wail, scream -
but as I dry my tears
all the emotions and thoughts
that were pent up inside me
waiting to explode
are now dissipated
and I achieve peace of mind.

When I was a youth
I did activities
for the purpose
of gaining experience;
Now that I’m wiser
I do activities
for the purpose
of gaining
joy and happiness.

The challenge of living
is to search for opportunities
in my current situation
for joy and happiness.

The challenge of living
is to search for opportunities
to improve my current situation
to increase my joy and happiness.

I am unhappy
but I am striving
to be joyful and happy.

Writing a poem
read by friends
who smile
laugh
cry
think
feel
what I wrote.
And talk to me
about my poem.

When I feel sad,
what should I do?
Does discovering something to do
which makes me joyful and happy
increase my joy and happiness?
Like walking in a park?
Like eating tasty-nutritious food?
Like reading and writing poetry?

Gilberto Luna
was a Mexican pioneer farmer
who lived in an area of Texas
which is now Big Bend National Park
and Luna’s 130 year old Jacal (hut)
remains to be seen today.

Luna’s Jacal
is built with
walls of sandstones and limestones,
wooden poles as pillars supporting a roof
made from tree branches
weighed down with earth and stones.

Luna’s Jacal
like many other
pioneer huts
was built from materials
found in his environment:
We strive to build our happiness
from opportunities found
in our environment.

Today in Texas
people live in skyscrapers
built with concrete, steel, glass,
materials produced by years of
discovery, innovation, adaptation
of new ways of using materials
from our natural-environment
to improve our built-environment:
We strive to
discover new ways
to improve our environment
to improve our happiness.

If
I like ice-cream
and
All ice-creams are sweet,
Do I like sweets?

If
I like riding horses
and
All horses are animals,
Do I like riding animals?

If
I like driving cars
and
All cars are motor-vehicles,
Do I like driving motor-vehicles?