My Pursuit of Happiness

  For millions of years living sentient beings have roamed this world thriving off the land that was created by a higher being.  Oceans filled with fish and other sea creatures. Land covered with trees, and plants being fruitful for a purpose of survival.  Tribes of human beings used the fruit of the land for food, clothes, shelter, and weapons.  As the population grew oceans started to become dead, the nutrients in the soil became depleted.  Greed and power took over stealing the richness from the earth and the freedom from people.     One freedom that was taken away was land, a foundation birth right for all Native people in America.  Chief Joseph, who was a powerful Nez Perce leader advocating for people's rights to stay on their homeland, fought to return his people back to Oregon's Wallowa Valley.  He led a guerrilla campaign of 300 warriors and 500 women and children.   U.S. troops pursued him across over 1300 mile...

            Yesterday was the first time, in a long time, that I was able to take the moment and enjoy the beauty that surrounds me.  It was the first time that I was able to isolate the sounds in my head and the cacophony that creates our world, that we find ourselves consumed in on a daily basis, and separate them from the sounds of silence.  I found myself in a bird sanctuary/wildlife refuge.  At that time of day I was the only person there.  I walked through the wooded secluded areas watching a couple of deer frolicking in the distance.  I had sojourned at a wooden foot bridge overlaying a frozen pond.  My eyes were closed due to the brightness of the sun hitting the white snow.  But I just wanted to feel the warmth of the sun against my back.  I focused my whole attention to that comforting sensation and feeling so elated that I had finally taken myself out of my head, away fr...

          A feeling of strong, unbreakable chains that seem impossible to break.  A heaviness on my shoulders that keep on weighing me down into this quick sand.  I'm stuck.  Oh, how difficult it is to pick up one leg and then the other.  I'm sinking further and further into the unknown....this black whole.  There is no light.....no illumination of hope.  Just darkness.       When I wake up it is still dark.  "Help!" I yell out.  "Is anyone here?"  But no response.  Not even one murmur.  As I stumble around to find my way through this blackness, I come across a wall and then another, and another.  The air here is so stagnant.  My chest is heavy and in pain from lack of breathing.  I am running, feeling my way around just to find each door blocked, unable to open it to the other side.  Each stair case never ends, but is spiraling and spira...