Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Follow your Bliss °o° *•._.•* ' *•._.•* °o°

“Listen with your heart, you will understand.” -- Pocahontas

Why SHOULDN’T we move to be near Disney?


Many times the first response I hear when I tell someone we’re moving to Florida to be near Disney is an outright laugh, or a snort.  That’s ok, I don’t mind it, sometimes I even think it sounds like an odd decision.


There was an author and orator by the name of Joseph Campbell who appeared in interviews on a PBS series and later published the transcripts called “The Power of Myth”, who coined the philosophical term “Follow Your Bliss”.  The phrase has permeated pop culture, and most people are aware of it; but most aren’t aware of the rest of what he was saying.  He said:

“Follow your bliss. If you do follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while waiting for you, and the life you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in the field of your bliss, and they open the doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be. If you follow your bliss, doors will open for you that wouldn't have opened for anyone else." 

This philosophy touches me deeply and causes me to reflect on what I find blissful in my life.  These are things I return to time after time.

  • Disney
  • Theatre
  • Art and drawing
  • Reading
  • Love
  • When Mark gets home from work
  • When our dog rests his head on my lap
  • Christmas
  • Halloween
  • Mashing any combination of these things into one!

I don't think very many of us follow our bliss.  We may visit it as a hobby, or we may be too frightened to disrupt what we already know.  As an experiment, I took the words “your bliss” and replaced them with the word “Disney”.  Now it reads:

“Follow Disney. If you do follow Disney, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while waiting for you, and the life you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in the field of Disney, and they open the doors to you. I say, follow Disney and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be. If you follow Disney, doors will open for you that wouldn't have opened for anyone else." 

Who is say that Disney does not qualify as “bliss”?  Mark and I both find happiness and fulfillment from everything that Disney has to offer, on a daily basis.  It’s not just amusement parks, or animated movies. It’s a sense of community, a feeling of nostalgia, the longing to share those feelings with other people. Snort all you want my friend, but the signs were there all along.  You won’t snort when you want a place to stay when you come to Disney World on vacation, and we have a spare room for you!


What is your bliss? What is your passion? What makes you happiest in life?  Are you following it?  Please comment.


Comments are welcome. Positive feedback encouraged!

Mouseketeer Ken

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