What’s missing in your life? I would like you to take a moment and consider this question. Is it romance, money, your soul mate, time, family? What is it that you are missing that if you had it would complete you or make you happier than you are right now?

Many people believe that something is missing in their life and that if they only had that thing they were missing, then life would be more complete and then they would be happier. We are told from the time we are a child that everything will be better when …

We are told by society that we will be happier when we fill that void, whatever that void may be.

We tend to worry about what we are missing in our life. We watch others around us and we see that other people have things that we don’t and if they appear to be “happy” we then wonder if we had what they had would we be happier than we are right now. We may say to ourselves, “I would be so much happier if only I had ___________” You fill in the blank, it could be anything. In our culture it is often money, love, a child, a family, romance, our soul mate, a bigger house, a nicer car, a better understanding of “God”, etc.

I believe that one of the greatest lessons we can learn along our journey is that we are not missing anything, that all is as it is supposed to be for the moment. The lesson is that everything that we ever need or have needed is within us. We have never needed anything external to us to be happier than we are right now. Although we may find some pleasure in the chase of external things, the truth is that we have all that we need.

You may remember ancient and modern stories of the person who had the least material things to give others, freely gave them to help others while those with plenty selfishly clung on to their material things and were not a generous. The person who seemingly has nothing to give and gives what little they do have to help others understands this lesson. They understand that they already have everything they will ever need. They understand that it was their birthright to have everything they needed in life and that their happiness did not lay in obtaining something external to them.

I am reminded of the story of a child who grew up in a family who every weekend would make extra food to deliver to neighbors who were not as fortunate. When the child’s school did a food drive for a needy family, the child gladly brought in food for the food drive. This same child was very surprised when he opened the door the following Saturday morning to discover that the “needy family” that the school had done the food drive for was his family. See this child was raised in a family of abundance, they knew they had everything they needed and that none of what they needed was external.

So, I ask you, are you truly missing anything in your life?  Are you sitting there saying I will be happy when or I would be happy if only if …?

For most of us, we are the only obstacle to our own happiness. Time to get out of our way and allow ourselves to be truly happy!