There is a child story about a frog.

Pretending to be something else it makes it self grow and grow, until it exploits into a thousand pieces.

This story –like all children’s stories- is true.

It happens to most people in the modern world.

They make themselves bigger and bigger, until we cannot find their Self any more.

“What happened to the lovely person I once knew?” We wonder.

It first happens with their jobs. Jobs tend to make people bigger. When the job goes, to no surprise, people find themselves lost, feeling useless. It happens when people retire. One year they are in full swing. The next one they become ghosts.

“Do you believe in ghosts?”

All you have to do is trust your eyes. They are all around you. They are what’s remains of those who have lost their social role.

Roles are what make us expand. Our identification with this role is what gets us lost in the woods of the world.

It is all air.

Bad air for that matter.

The old stories tell us about the bad air, and how at one time the world was destroyed by it.

It was the air of self-importance. It was arrogance.

People grew up, became big, and went throwing their weight around each other, each trying to show the rest how powerful they were. Nations were built following this same belief.

Have you ever wonder what happened to all of the gods to whom the people prayed thousands of years ago?

What happened to all of those believes that filled people’s minds for so many generations?

I go through old magazines, and find rivers of ink poured over “the communist threat.”

The other day I was listening to an old radio program and in the announcements people were being recruited to be “sky watchers” right after Pearl Harbor.

I could just see how people filled many hours of their lives, going out in the middle of the night, scrutinizing the skies, searching for those enemy planes who –as some of their political representatives would continuously say- “they are coming! They are coming!” Their fears creating all kinds of shapes… all in their minds.

The next generation would also go out there, and search the skies. This times for UFO’s.

There, in the cold night, wondering about the life of the galaxies not even knowing their neighbor’s name.

Big people, some place lost within themselves.

Frogs.

There is an antidote to this illness. Explosion is not the necessary outcome of our lives.

We can actually have a good life and be at peace with ourselves all the way to the end.

All we have to do is drop our attachment to our roles. All we have to do is hang out with people. And above all, avoid inflation – a disease more common nowadays than the flu.

And we find inflation all over the place. It is the books, and in the news; in the movies and the market; in the homes and at the schools. Inflation is the dominant feature. Even our conversations are saturated with it. And if you don’t inflate your speech, then people just don’t listen to you. There has to be something big here and there to catch their attention you know.

“So, what you did this weekend, Pete?”

And all of the sudden you are searching for that big thing that must be there for heaven sakes. For this is the time when big things happen to people, and certainly something worth telling came your way this weekend. And you speak, and suddenly you find big things just pooping out of your mouth. And yes, this is what the frog of the story did before it blew up.

So, next time that something big comes out of your mouth STOP! Grow small again. Come back to your senses. Take a deep breath. And shake all those big things from you.

You will find that you become freer then. You don’t have to play the game anymore.

You can open your eyes to all that is. And you can smile away all of the big things that come your way. Learn from the air. After all, the air that sustains us is wonderful because it is empty. And emptiness is the antidote to inflation.

We don’t need more stuff in our lives. We need less. It is actually our stuffiness that causes us emotional indigestion. Our fullness makes us grouchy. Not much room in us for anything.

Letting go brings such a relief because it gives us space. All of a sudden we find ourselves empty and happy. Happy precisely because we are empty. There is room within us for the air, the sun, the trees, the world. Our “good morning!” has a ring to it because it is not phony. We mean it. It is a good morning. We are living life one breath at a time, just like it is actually happening to us. No one can live it any differently. “Good morning!” means that we are still here! Not everybody can say that. Some of them went under the ground as we speak. And our moment will come –as it comes for everyone- but not at this moment. So we are happy. Yes, just happy to be here!

If you are not happy right now, chances are it is because you have too much and you are too little.

That is right. I have said it, and I am ready to duck before the tomatoes hit me.

Happiness is elusive. It is less in what you have than in what you give. And less in what you give than in what you are. For happiness is a by-product, an indirect effect of your experience. But in order to get it you have to have room for it.

So, make room, go out there, do some good for others, or just appreciate the world. Let the sun touch you; or the moon reflect its light on your eyes. Smell a flower, lie under a tree. Take off your shoes, walk on the grass. Follow a butterfly, jump into a creek. Look at a squirrel. Pet a dog, let a cat sleep on your lap. If you are lucky, you will find that happiness has arrived, unannounced, just like dreams arrive. For dreams and happiness come from the same place. That mysterious place within ourselves. A place within our reach everytime we let go and surrender to the flow of life.