As an Oak would Be

I believe that it serves no purpose for us to take our emotions too seriously.

Emotions are transient, very transient. They are the most inconsistent part of us. This is the nature of our being, too feel. That is pretty much it. We move from experience to experience, feeling the emotions of it, or rather letting the emotion flow through us. The more experiences we have, the bigger spectrum of emotions available for us to feel and therefore the more life available for us to live.

The graceful-ness with which we are able to "go with the flow" of our emotions identifies our individual level of peace within our own being.

For example, picture a large oak tree in the middle of a field...whether the sun is shining, there is a snow storm, a wind storm, or torrential rain pouring down on it, the nature or state of being of the oak tree is the same. It simply goes with the flow and if for some reason it is uprooted and its' life is ended, then it sinks back into the earth to start again...

I am hesitant to say anything definitively these days but I am leaning less and less on the idea that we need to learn to master our emotions. I think life is more about being able to experience as much emotion as we can. Whether we are warmed by the sunlight of love or our soaked in a sea of despair, all we can really do is just experience the emotion and go with the flow...knowing this is the point of life, to feel.

Fighting against emotions or trying to hold on tightly to a particular emotion causes depression, disease and eventually pre-mature death. I know that sounds extreme but I have no doubt that it is true. So what choice do we have? We must learn to relax and take it easy, to let emotion flow through us without obsessive analysis.

It is unthinking of us to teach our children that they have to be happy and to strive for continual happiness. This cheats them out of their life and can only inevitably cause misery. Lets instead teach them to have as many experiences as they can in this one, very short lifetime and to embrace each and every feeling that gifts itself to them. So, at the end of their precious time, they can look back at all that they've felt and know they've really lived.