Writing is teaching me to be happy, contrary to the tormented writer stereotype. It has something to do with what Anne Lamott says is the real gold of the writing life--getting to live as someone awake, eyes open to the beauty and mystery all around us. Writing my life stirs my awareness of it, and in observing it I'm actually freed from having to analyze it. That's why poetry can affect us so powerfully--not because it's invented, but because it is rooted in reality, profoundly observed. One book I recently read says, seeing is meaning. I'm done striving to understand life as though it were a cosmic puzzle. I don't need to be a Life Analyst. The simple invitation is to participate, hearing the music in the background, greeting passerby with my eyes and my welcome, and here I find joy.