Presence

I've spent a lot of my life chasing happiness.

Thinking it was waiting somewhere out there.

Another relationship.
Another accomplishment.
Another version of myself.

Always one more step away.

But lately...

I've been wondering if joy was never meant to be chased.

Maybe it's found in presence.

Not my presence.

The presence of something... or someone... that settles your soul.

A kind heart.

A calm energy.

The feeling that you don't have to perform.

You don't have to prove anything.

You can simply exist.

I've realized how rare that is.

We're surrounded by noise.

Validation.

Distraction.

People trying to convince us who we should become.

But every once in a while...

You find yourself in the presence of something that quiets all of it.

Your breathing slows.

Your mind stops racing.

The weight you've been carrying somehow feels lighter.

Not because your problems disappeared.

Because you finally stopped carrying them alone.

Maybe that's joy.

Not excitement.

Not butterflies.

Not the rush of something new.

Something steadier.

Something that asks nothing from you except honesty.

C.S. Lewis wrote that if we find ourselves with a desire nothing in this world can satisfy, perhaps we were made for another world.

I've thought about that a lot.

Maybe we've been looking in the wrong places.

Maybe joy was never hiding.

Maybe we were simply too distracted to notice it.

Life is still difficult.

There are still storms.

Still questions.

Still uncertainty.

But when your eyes are fixed on what truly matters...

The path becomes a little clearer.

And for the first time in a long time...

I'm less interested in chasing happiness.

I'm more interested in protecting the peace I've found.