Twinn Swan

Are you happy? If the answer is no, then, how are you, really and truly? I ask these questions because I want to know: is there joy in your home and in your family? If there isn’t, can you pinpoint the true reason why?

The truth, the truth that everyone knows deep down is that happiness cannot be bought. Happiness does not have its roots in the acquisition of material objects alone. Acquiring those things will make you happy for a little while… And then, the conflict, the one you never properly resolved, will return. Or perhaps some other unforeseen conflict will emerge in its wake.

We know that we are unhappy. Perhaps we have even been unhappy for a long time. How do we emerge from the darkness into the light? In life, we often fail to see, let alone truly experience, God’s plan. We often realise, especially when we become unhappy–when we experience our own limitations, shortcomings, fears and failures–that we are being led and guided into a new reality.

Around five years ago, I remember sitting in the basement of a synagogue in Connecticut surrounded by religious texts. I reached for–or should I say, I was given–the prayer book for Yom Kippur: the Jewish Day of Atonement. I found a long lost part of myself as I flipped through the pages in that book that seemingly came into my life by chance.

The book spoke of God’s plan and purpose for us; especially for those of us which had committed sinful acts or caused grievances and harm towards others. I realised–as I read through the passages, pleas and prayers–that true joy, nay true happiness, can only ever come into being when harmony exists between and amongst people who have come together for a particular purpose.

Certain cultures–ethnic, religious and even corporate–create and enforce this harmony by erecting an edifice where everyone is forced, encouraged or persuaded to conform to a value system and to a rigid set of rules and moral codes.

As the world becomes increasingly globalised, I can’t help but wonder if an entirely new structure is necessary; one where we are able to create harmony out of our differences. If we are unable to do this, I am afraid that joy, will, indeed, fade; leaving only rampant individualism in its wake.

We often fail to see God’s plan. When we begin to see God’s plan, we see that the image of our Maker is the mirror through which we discover our True Self and our destiny and purpose on this planet.