I wore this sweatshirt to one of my son’s soccer games in 1992, and one of the fathers at the game asked, “How do you know what your bliss is?” I didn’t know how to answer him because I was still working on finding mine. I sensed that he really wanted to know, so I smiled and said, “You’ll know it when you find it,” which I believed to be true. I now know that it is true.
“Follow your bliss,” Joseph Campbell said in an interview with Bill Moyers in 1987. “If you do follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while waiting for you, and the life you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in the field of your bliss, and they open the doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be.”
Your bliss comes from your deepest wishes of the heart, not what you think you desire (especially when you are young), but the deeper yearning of your true heart, your soul. Finding your bliss means knowing and following where your soul wants to go. It’s there in your enthusiasm, your passion, that thing you keep coming back to or long to do. It’s the thing that excites you the most.
My path to bliss started with another famous quote I inserted in the whisper of space between the top of my mirror and the frame. I saw it every day, usually more than once, and I believe that one, too.
“Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it."
It is often attributed to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, but it is actually by William Hutchinson Murray in his 1951 Scottish Himalayan Expedition book. The Goethe Society of North America clarified the origin of the quote in 1998, but Goethe still gets all the credit.
Begin it, I did, and by 1999, I was well on my way to following the my bliss. It hasn’t always been a blissful journey. There is hard work and determination involved. And patience. I have gone from the unknowing and uncertainty of a 40-year-old to the confidence, positivity, and wisdom that age brings. Were I to begin to follow my bliss now, it may have been a different story, a different path, but I would still end up who and where I am now because I did follow my bliss and trusted in the process of finding my deepest self and purpose.
The blessing of age is the wisdom that accompanies it. If you haven’t found or followed your bliss yet, I bet it’s right there under your nose. Look down. there it is - your heart. It shouldn’t take you long to open and follow it. And if you, like me, have been following your bliss for some time now, bless the bliss. ❤️
Care to share your bliss? I’d love to hear all about it.
PS I still wear the sweatshirt!
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Quote of the Week
Think of quotes as verbal shorthand. They condense complicated concepts into an accessible language nugget.
Sam Horn
Ailsa Willis. New Zealand. You visited Wendy next door some time ago. Love what you write Lesley. Turning ninety next Monday - my bliss is probably continuing to be healthy even though I have lost my balance and have three walkers, one for inside, one for outside and one in the boot of the car for shopping. I enjoy making cards in my little crafting corner.
BLISS AND PASSION
Two different words which for me really feed on one another. I can feel and hear passion flowing through me. Others have commented “ You really come alive when you talk about that, I wish I felt passionate like that about anything.” Passion guides me down the path trusting an inner process towards bliss. Like an indicator light on my dashboard. They aren’t the same, but they commingle and I sure like the wide open flow that says “ you go girl”.