still seeking true costs

Talking Leaves: Spring 2005: Dancing with the Broken Heart of Gaia"...We are born into a culture that seems to believe there are certain sets of rules that must be followed--that life is a multiple-choice test and that we must choose one of the pre-selected answers. What I have discovered is that truth and contentment (much less bliss) never come as prefabricated answers. The only valid option is to invent a new answer and to realize that oftentimes the question itself is a fallacy. If the question is How can I get through life as comfortably as I can? or How can I succeed just enough to get by?, then the question needs to be thrown out completely. The question should be more along the lines of What gives me the greatest joy?, What passion/purpose could I dedicate my life to?, and/or What do I need to be whole? If we are honest with ourselves we will find that the answers to these questions have very little to do with societal standing, monetary status, or even comfort level. The answers to these questions will often frighten us because they will show us just how far we are from our own passions and needs. The questions will creep into our dreams and our internal conversations, regardless of our denial, until answered with affirmation and action.

We've all heard of finding your bliss, but in reality, bliss is not something that we can find. Bliss exists within us as an expression of the beauty and joy of Gaia. We need not search for it; we need only to acknowledge it, to embody it. But what does it mean to embody bliss, to own it completely? To not see it as something outside of and separate from ourselves? How to recognize and realize ourselves as extensions of Gaia, extensions of her beauty and bliss? [...]