This summer I endeavor to chase my own bliss like a comet chases its elliptical path in the cosmos. Like fireflies dance through the sky, these rock-at-the-core dazzlers seize our gaze and capture our fascination. But like us, they traverse the universe with numbered days. To the naked eye, they flare for a day or two before their light is swallowed up in darkness.
Scripture describes human life as frail as grass or a vapor. Here today and gone the next. So is our life compared to Eternity’s vista, outside of space and time. So I question myself today. Will I, like the comet, take every opportunity to enliven my sky with brilliant light or slowly fade away?
Will I chase my own bliss because in doing so I glorify the God of both comets and men?
This summer I will. I must. My life shall follow this blissful orbit. I will love God and make time to enjoy. Like a bee waits for spring, I will sit still waiting for Jesus. With a glad, thankful heart and seeking mind, I will still myself and listen. I will question and speak back worship and awe.
Like Thoreau by Walden Pond, I will find Him outside. Nature hikes, swimming and walking by the lake will enlighten my gaze and enlarge my view of God. Wonder is my aim.
I will commune at open-air concerts with a carpet of grass between my toes. Kids, picnics, swings will dissolve stress like Stevia in my coffee. The dissolving leaves only sweetness.
Playing, laughing and writing naked, dangerous prose will employ me, not tedious to-do lists. This is summer after all, and it demands full, life-saturated being. I won’t feel guilty to forego laundry or to read fun novels or Pulitzers if I please.
Summer abhors rules, and stodgy schedules can wait for winter. Summer lives today. Give it freedom.
Will you join me in chasing your own bliss whether it takes you across the world or to the sandbox in your backyard?
Chasing your own bliss isn’t about running from your life. It’s about finding it.
To our perspective, the comet’s glory has nothing to do with where it’s going, but everything to do with how it gets there.
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