Bliss is supposedly a state of mind or even a physical state that I’m not sure that I have ever experienced. It is supposedly a state of mind and/or body where you feel relaxed and happy. Ordinarily, I have had too many things on my mind to ever feel very relaxed mentally, and keeping myself busy physically has never been a problem for me either. The happy part I can relate to, as I have always felt fulfilled or happy from an emotional as well as from a physical sense. If bliss can be experienced without being relaxed, then I have experienced bliss.
Many people feel that lying on a beach for a week or two would bring them bliss, while it would only be a source of frustration for me. There are too many important and useful things that we could be doing to waste the precious time we have on earth, laying on a beach. To visit the beach is enjoyable, but there is no thrill for me in laying on it. I can just imagine what some people will think when they read this thought of mine. They will probably think I am a crazy kook. I know they will think that that guy is “abbynormal.” I really have to admit that I do not think like very many other people. When it comes to the matter of learning how to and actually relaxing, I’m not the usual.
I really do like the sound of the word “bliss;” however, it has a rather heavenly sound to it. Its probably because when you hear the word bliss, it is usually in conjunction with the word heaven. Such as “heavenly bliss.
Then there is the other side of bliss, the side where it is said that ignorance is bliss. If you are experiencing bliss, you may not understand what is going on around you.
Seriously, bliss is, in reality, a state of mind that we may all want to arrive at one day. Maybe it’s when the trials, the education, the work, the fun, the challenges of life are behind us and we are where we are assigned on the other side the veil. Then, maybe then, we can really relax for a time and experience bliss. Life is so full of challenges, so full of opportunity, so full of ways to learn and grow mentally and emotionally, that it is hard for me, and many others, to take time out for bliss while on this side of the veil.
Life is full of a variety of hits on our senses; the sounds of earth are so many and so varied that we have to listen. And when our hearing is challenged, we have to listen all the harder to take-in the sounds of life. We have to see, as well, because life is so full of color and variety it has been compared to an artist’s canvas that has been splashed from top to bottom with bright colored paints. When our eyes are old and dim, we have to look all the harder to appreciate the colors of nature and life. We are being given an opportunity to feel and to touch as part of our experiencing earth life, and there is such a variety of textures to feel and enjoy that we should hope to never lose that sense of touch.
If life is meant to be a laboratory for God’s children to experience His creations, a place to learn and grow and become more like Him, then, to me, bliss is the process of experimentation and not a place to lay on the beach and relax. To me, heavenly bliss should be defined as enjoying and experiencing God’s planet with each and every one of our senses for as much and as long as we can. Joseph Campbell had a little different take on bliss too. He said:
“Follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be.”
There was once an elderly, despondent woman in a nursing home. She wouldn’t speak to anyone or request anything. She merely existed—rocking in her creaky old rocking chair. The old woman didn’t have many visitors. But every couple of mornings, a concerned and wise young nurse would go into her room. She didn’t try to speak or ask questions of the old lady. She simply pulled up another rocking chair beside the old woman and rocked with her. Weeks or months later, the old woman finally spoke.
“Thank you,” she said. ‘Thank you for rocking with me.” I believe they shared a little human bliss. “There is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.” —Vincent Van Gogh