“What are you looking for in a mate?”

“I want someone who will make me happy,”  the young bunny told her mother.

“Well, dear, that could be a tough task, but I hope you find what it is you are looking for.”

For the next few years, the bunny grew up and began looking for potential life-long partners.  She had many good friends, but none of them seemed to fit the bill.  That being, the couldn’t seem to make her happy.

“I just don’t get it,” she told her mother, “no one seems to be able to make me happy.”

“That’s right dear.  Happiness comes from within.  It’s not something that someone can give you.”

“Wow, I didn’t realize that.”

The bunny matured and began to see things differently.  She began to realize that her happiness was not dependent on the behaviors of others.  Her happiness was difficult to find though.

One day she was running through the forest, when she found a nice, soft place under a log.   She crawled into the protected area, and decided to take a nap.  After many hours she awoke, to a large snake looming nearby.

The snake snorted, “wakey, wakey young bunny.  I’m waiting to eat my dinner.”

Frightened, the bunny froze in silence.

“I have been waiting for you to awaken, so that I might see my meal up close and awake, before I eat you.”

The bunny did not know what to do.  She had never encountered such a large snake so close.  No one else was around to help her, and she began to cry.

“Now, now, it won’t hurt.  I promise, I’ll be quick.”

“It’s not that I’m afraid of dying,” replied the bunny, “it’s just that I was hoping I could live a little longer, so that I might find happiness.”

“Oh, I’ll have happiness quite soon.”

“I’m glad I can at least make you happy, but my mother said that no one can make anyone happy.  Happiness is a choice that everyone must make for themselves, independent of what happens around them.”

With that statement, the bunny began to think about her mother’s wise words.

“I can make myself happy, independent of what happens around me!”

She began to think that she could make herself happy right now, even though her death was any moment now.

The snake also began to ponder the bunny’s statement and slowed his slithering around the bunny.

“You mean that even though you are going to feed me, you cannot make me happy?”

“Yes, that’s what my mother says, and she is one of the wisest rabbits in our village.”

“That’s interesting, but I’m afraid I still need to eat.”

“I know, I do not fault you for wanting to feed yourself.  I have decided to enjoy these last moments in a state of happiness that I have been struggling to find all of my life.”

At that moment, the bunny’s eyes were opened and she saw the beautiful designs on the snake’s skin.  She saw the beauty in the forest with the sunlit dew on the leaves.  She smelled the earth and the nutrients that it contained.  At that moment, she realized what it was her mother was trying to teach her.  Happiness, really is a choice.  It’s not something that you find at all.

“I am ready, whenever you are, ” she said with a smile to the snake.

The snake opened his mouth to reveal the large opening that could easily consume the small bunny.

The bunny closed her eyes, waiting for the end to come.  She was happy, though, knowing that she found her life-long search before it was too late.  She was grateful for the snake, in helping her understand what she was missing.   She thought to herself, “I could have lived a long life without knowing happiness, so I am glad to have at least found it in this short life.”

At that moment, a large owl dive-bombed on top of the snake, grabbed it with its sharp talons and carried it off into the sky.

The bunny opened her eyes to see the owl flying off in the distance with the snake in tow.

“Oh my goodness.  I am saved.”

The bunny looked around, dusted herself off and quickly ran back to the village.

She ran to her mother and jumped into her arms.

“Mom, you were so right about happiness.  It is a choice, and I have a second chance to live it.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

Ω

InspiraCard

When we search for something outside of us, we sometimes realize that there is no search at all, but rather a choice to make within.  When we make the choice of happiness, we can always find it!

Written, Thu, Mar 17, 2016, 8:14 – 8:31 AM MST