I just realized I didn't answer your question about happiness. No, it is not. I do not believe in the pursuit of happiness. Happiness, and sadness, not to be confused with depression, are but fleeting emotions that come and go and serve their signaling purposes. I seek contentment, which is not settling but a hopefully high-altitude baseline, coming from within and connection to without. It doesn’t stem from the acquisition of attachments but awareness of connection to the world and the universe as a living, breathing, and heart-beating organism and from the alignment of mind and soul and discerning my why — my drive — from discovering who I am at my core.

Moreover, I believe that the ultimate purpose in each incarnation is soul expansion. That at the macro level, the goal of life is to learn — for the soul to learn how to make a human act like a better human. Now I also know that souls are often tasked with playing the roles of necessary "evil." This is a paradox that I have been pondering lately. Perhaps one way that even that soul learns how to be be spiritual is by being sent to act not spiritually? I don't have to figure this out but it would make essays like I wrote today more intellectually complete, yet--"Do not waste the precious moments of this, your present reality, seeking to unveil all of life's secrets. Those secrets are a secret for a reason. Grant your God the benefit of the doubt."--that's another Neale Donald Walsh quote I refer back to from time to time