Happy Place

After a year where

our lives and pleasures were

limited, we ponder

the idea of “the happy place”

the place where an individual has the

soul-moment of true and exquisite

happiness.

A happy place…

Is where you come to be…

You.

It’s so individual, it can’t be mapped.

Nor found on a GPS.

It’s…

The painter, in the backyard garden, or the

studio, painting, feeling peace surrounded

by the paraphernalia of their artistry.

The writer composing late into the

quiet of the night finding the awe in a

shooting star then

searching for the perfect rhyme,

a poem on the tip of their tongue.

A happy place is an earthy spot where

things grow -  and decay. – a garden,

a wasteland – and where

the circle of life deeply and profoundly

reveals itself.

It’s you in a familiar place –

a sunlit yoga studio,

lying on your mat,

eyes closed.

Breathing in the joyous

pleasure of being there.

As an experience and emotion

“a happy place” is so individual

it’s almost indescribable.

It can be a building, or a

topography.

Private –

attics, garden sheds

Or public –

under a favoured tree in a public park,

or a rock by the lake.

They can also be verboten.

A place you discovered –

a secret orchard where trees

grow wild in a tamed-out city…

A decommissioned factory.

A happy place isn’t static.

It can move with you.

Running.

Cycling.

Walking.

Observing.

It can be gazing out the window of a train,

and feeling detached from everything

but the blur of passing scenery.

A happy place

can be an object.

An instrument played.

Or the book that brings

total immersion.

A happy place can be with another.

But the solitary provides a fertile ground

for the “hp” experience.

Like the person whose happy place

lies on top of a local hill

overlooking their home city and who explains

the happiness comes from being

Apart, and  yet A part (of).

A happy place can be gloriously familiar.

Say, the place you nightly descend upon -

the cocoon of your bed.

A happy place can be long lasting.

But also fleeting.

Because really a happy place

is the soul moment…

and it’s all in the mind.

A place.

where difficulties are

forgotten…

And where you feel

safe.

A happy place can be an incidental

discovery/rediscovery.

You’ll know where it is,

because of what you feel

when there.

Contentment, but richer.

Peace, yes,

The feeling that everything

is perfectly and utterly

emotionally and physically aligned,

right where you are.