Wednesday, May 21, 2008

The Key To Happiness

I had a strange dream, in it I was searching for the Key To Happiness. I was told that in order to find it I must be guided by an animal who was usually evil, except when the weather was cold. If I could befriend one of these animals during a period of cold weather, it would guide me to the key.

It took a while, but finally I found one of the animals. It looked like a large black dog, but it hid among the branches of trees and other places high up. It was a scary thing, so I hesitated to get too close to it, and just followed, watching it. While it was on the eve of a barn, just above my head, I mustered the courage to speak to it. It stopped and waited, listening, as it watched me with intent eyes.

To my surprise, I befriended it by simply telling it I needed it to be my friend. With a fluid motion, it jumped down beside me and looked patiently up at me. Deciding I was prepared enough for a pretty long journey, I asked it to guide me to The Key To Happiness. It repled, "The key is not at a place, it is something you make. Only you can make the key to your happiness."

Then the scene changed, we were inside a large room similar in style to a Middle-Eastern hall, with rows of seating filled with all sorts of people. I was standing beside the black dog as it spoke to the audience. It was telling a Hindu man dressed in fine brocade clothing and a gold turban, "God is with all those who seek Him." With that, the man smiled peacefully.

It then spoke to the audience in general, saying, "Happiness is a road we must each choose to walk again each day, but it is a road we can only reach by using the key we have chosen to make for ourselves and then choosing to use that key. We can share our happiness with others, but we cannot give happiness to others. Personal happiness cannot be taken or given, it can only be chosen and made."

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Not taken or given? But it's common to try to give happiness to someone else, to "make someone happy," that doesn't work? It can only be chosen and made? Shouldn't that be the other way around, "made and chosen"? I see! In order to make it, I must first *choose* to make it.

Going back to the first, why cold weather? Could it be an allusion to needing a "cool head of reason" not muddled with the "hot" tumultuous emotions of anger, discord or displeasure? Also, why was the animal usually evil, except in cold weather? "Hot" emotions are evil, as a general rule, could that be it? The fact the animal was usually evil might mean it's more common to be in turmoil (evil) than at peace. That's sad to realize.

I'm not sure I understand it all, but some dreams are worth remembering anyway.