At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want.  Lao Tzu

 Last weekend I went to see Tommy, the musical currently playing at Stratford Festival. What an incredible show! The story takes us through the life of Tommy, a young boy who became deaf and mute as a result of childhood trauma. His spirit was trapped in the psychic splits this abuse caused and he was disconnected from the centre of his own core. The child actors did an amazing job of depicting the zombie existence of Tommy. The one place of his eventual engagement came as a ‘pinball wizard.’

As the story unfolds, Tommy grows older and undergoes lots of ‘medical and psychological’ testing to find out what the matter is. Nothing is truly revealed until a profound act by his mother finally breaks through to Tommy’s core. She shattered the illusion of who he thought he was. His freedom and happiness came in his discovery that his light was inside of him. He discovered himself and rejoiced in his ability to hear, speak and engage.

When the world tried to make him be their spiritual guru, he refused it and told them they already had what they needed inside of them. Go look for it there. Happiness comes first when we go inside and we experience the good fortune of loving ourselves. As Tommy discovered his centre and rejected the fame of being a spiritual guru to his fans and the masses, he realized he needed to go home and make peace with his family, those who had abused him and simply misunderstood the trauma he absorbed. And as the two ‘key skills’ that were offered last week, he faced the deep hurt within and sought peace with his family and his world, a vision that took him outside of himself.

The next morning Carlie and I had the pleasure of getting really close to a hawk who was  on the ground in the middle of the field. We stopped and acknowledged this incredible bird and wished it a wonderful day. To my happiness, the hawk invited me to remember the message of the birds this month about the mindset of happiness:

 “face your grief and hurt and seek peace with it, just as Tommy did. Then you will experience the good fortune of loving yourself and feeling happiness as a deeper state of living. Cultivate awareness so that you can see when ‘happiness’ arrives at your door in the ordinary moments of your life. And as you practise noticing happiness, you will feel deeper satisfaction. And as you express gratitude for this deeper satisfaction, you will open to the true self that holds the wisdom to live a fulfilled life.”

 The hawk then flew away and invited me to reflect on the happiness I felt at the show. Not only was I entertained with incredible music (it took me back to my teenage years of listening to ‘the Who’, a band I enjoyed listening and dancing to), I was called back to my centre to claim the good fortune of loving myself and realize that the inner peace I seek lies in my power to forgive those who have hurt me. Happiness, in this way, is an inside job to live. I leave you with this quote:

 Often people attempt to live their lives backwards; they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want, so they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then do what you need to do, in order to have what you want.  Margaret Young

 Blessings of happy living as you step into Summer!