ALLOWING YOURSELF TO BE
We live in a world that tells us we must always be happy. People often say to me, “You will be happy again,” or “All I want is for you to be happy again.” I know these words come from love and kind intentions. Still, happiness is painted as the ultimate goal, something to chase, measure, and cling to at all costs.
But what if happiness isn’t the point? What if there is something deeper, quieter, and far more lasting?
In Spanish, there’s a phrase that has been echoing in my heart: permitir ser, allowing yourself to be. It is in this allowing that we find what I can only call inner peace.
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Happiness and Peace Are Not the Same
Happiness can be fleeting. It rises and falls with our circumstances; a moment of laughter, a song that moves you, the warmth of a summer day. I was deeply happy with my husband, in countless ways. But peace is different. Peace does not depend on conditions. Peace can live alongside sadness, alongside tears.
You may feel heartbreak, you may carry grief, and still, deep within, there can be a quiet stillness, a presence that does not leave. That stillness is sacred. It is not loud or demanding, but it radiates softly from within. It arrives after happiness, and it stays.
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The Forgiveness of the Present
Peace begins with letting the present moment be what it is, not resisting it, not fighting against it. There is a kind of forgiveness in this: forgiving the present for not being what you hoped it would be, forgiving yourself for not feeling happy.
When you allow life to simply be, you stop the exhausting struggle with it. And in that surrender, peace rises gently, like sunlight breaking through after a storm.
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The Sacred Presence of Being
This peace is more than calm; it feels like the very emanation of being itself. A sacred presence that steadies you in the midst of change. It doesn’t erase your humanity, the sadness, the longing, the tears, but it wraps them in a profound stillness.
And in that stillness, you remember: you are not broken. You are whole. You are alive.
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A Gentle Invitation
So perhaps the question is not, Am I happy? but instead, Am I allowing myself to be?
You don’t have to be happy to be at peace. You don’t have to chase after light, it is already within you. Even now, even here, peace is waiting in the quiet space where you simply allow yourself to be.
