What is paradise? Is it a place we pray and hope to reach some day? Is it a moment of total bliss, joy and exaltation? I think it depends on where you are in the cycle of your life and where you are in your life. If I were in a war zone, fearing the death of my children and grandchildren, paradise to me would be a safe refuge. A camp with enough food and shelter…safe from harm’s way would be paradise.
If I think of all the “Have’s” we have here…I have here, the luxuries, the comforts, the warmth and living without the threat on my life or my children, family, friends and country…I am really in paradise, non? And yet, we search and crave more.
Walking down the street to work and seeing the sun peak at me through the clouds, is not that a moment of grace? A rainbow an autumn evening in the city at rush hour, what a way to end a busy day…pedestrians looking up in exaltation…the smiles on their faces warm with delight and childlike wonder…those are moments of paradise.
Naive and innocent was I…we were such young newly weds, years later I remember thanking G-D for allowing couples to visit paradise in those intimate moments reaching nirvana.
My babies nursing and looking up at me with their huge baby blues, one hand gently stroking my cheek…paradise in all its splendour.
The soothing purring of my cat when I wake up from a nightmare, she has rescued me and brought me to a heavenly place…a moment of bliss.
To feel comforted, to be worry free, to reach your destination after driving in a blizzard…to arrive in a warm home, with a warm cup of tea…paradise.
I believe writing has allowed me to appreciate more, take note and savour more the moments that we are blessed with every day.
They are accumulations of moments too often missed…not stopping to relish, take a snapshot of those moments …it is the memory of those moments of bliss, paradise, that get me through the sullen moments. So, STOP, slow down, listen, bathe in it and store it forever in the attic of your brain.
(c) Clr ’14
Tournesol dans un Jardin 
Watching the sun slowly paint the silver sky in reds while walking Sissy is a paradise for me. Something that I desperately need some mornings for my whole day to be bright.
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I hear you…I did not mention my sunsets that allow me to finish my shift but I no longer see them…fortunately with my time off I am getting up much earlier and will try to go for a predawn walk to be infused with this beauty of dawn.
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A lovely message you gave and displayed in the haiku
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Thanks, Hamish, this was fun to write, like going down memory lane:)
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So many glimpses of happiness, such a rich and enjoyable post 🙂 I especially like the “blissful sailing” haiku, with its atmosphere of serenity.
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Thank you, Blake.
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