So, we are now experiencing a Hitchkokian plague of caterpillars here in the formerly serene, but now roaring, town of Manhole, and you know what? I am strangely okay with them.
Everybody else is freaking the hell out, spraying, squishing, and ew-ing all over the place as they walk through curtains of caterpillars, picking them out of their hair, their pockets, even their ears.
They’re starting to eat the trees, these caterpillars, and sometimes, if you’re quiet enough, you can here this buzzing sound in the air which is the sound of their collective munching.
I must say I am enjoying these caterpillars, first, because everyone else is freaking over them; and secondly, because they are temporarily distracting me from the plague of the roaring, belching, gas trucks.
After the caterpillars eat their fill of the trees, they’ll morph into something else and the leaves will grow back. The caterpillars are a naturally occurring plague, like wildfires in the west. You can try to control them, but it’s best to let them just burn themselves out.
I read somewhere recently that if you want to be happy, you have to find a way to fall in love with reality. If your happiness always depends on things going as you wish or desire, your chances of achieving happiness are slim to none.
Whereas, if you are able to accept, and even enjoy, any reality (that you are not able to manipulate to please yourself), then you will have a real shot at true contentment and joy.
I can’t control the caterpillars, or the gas trucks, but I find it curious that people will freak over, and want to spray to get rid of, a hungry little bug, yet not even see the long-term effects of the gas “play.”
Inspiration Location 
Kathleen:
It’s clear you have a fertile imagination: just look at the title you dreamed up for this post. How lovely.
Now: how come I didn’t think of that? Oh, well.
Yes, happiness depends on externals, whereas bliss is an inner journey–a matter between you and you.
Example: you are happy only if…you win that award; you get that ivy league degree; you beat the competition; you are better-looking than the neighbor’s wife; you are interviewed on national TV; your idea is supported by your boss–and so on.
You experience, bliss, however, independently of those externals. You really don’t need it. All you have to do is sit still and learn how to find your center. And that, by itself, is enough. You don’t need expensive things to experience bliss.
In my case, for example, I experience bliss every time I read your blog; every time I go for a casual stroll in the park; every time I sit down for my daily meditation session. Ah, the simpler pleasures of life!
“Follow your bliss,” wrote the mythologist and writer, Joseph Campbell. You know what?
I think you are pursuing your bliss. And thanks for inspiring all of us through your example.
Have a great day. Cheers!
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“Fall in love with reality” A brilliant thought from a brilliant woman!
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Yeah, that comment really wiggled out at me too! “if you want to be happy, you have to find a way to fall in love with reality.” … diggin’ it!!!! … munching it & morphing with it!!!
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