Like me, if you are looking for enlightenment-most of you will have missed the boat-it sailed a very long time ago.

I retired early in my life-almost seven years ago. Like many I spent much of my life working and raising a family or two. I reached a point at about 50 years old when I decided I had enough. Actually I decided that long before I retired. I knew there had to be something more than what I was doing. Certainly I didn't let any moss grow under my feet. I owned several businesses and worked for a few. My vocations were highly varied, ranging from electronics, to fur trapping, to writing and more.

I have several children and have had many lovers and relationships. My life has always been built around people and yet I am very reclusive and absent from friendship circles and social interaction. People who know me don't understand that, thinking just the opposite-when it's business-I'm right in there. Most of this reclusive ness is self imposed. I have a really poor memory when it comes to names. I won't remember you name ten seconds after you tell me. So, because I have forgotten your name, I will try to avoid you if I see you. I am not sure if I am reclusive because of this or I am forgetful because I want to be reclusive.

This alienation from people has helped me in the last seven years to give much attention to my reading and writing. I am still working part time as a sales person, so I am in contact with people 4 hours a day. I have rationalized my introverted life even further by acknowledging I don't like soap operas, drama, and gossip. I find conversations with others filled with much of this stuff. I do not want to always be serious either-I think we all take ourselves too seriously. But conversations don't have to be judgmental, disempowering, or about personalities.

I have devoted the last sever years to finding enlightenment. It's what I have written about in the hundreds of articles I have on the internet and in my published books. My searching ended some time ago when I realized I was chasing my tail, yet I continue to write and I have another book coming out this year (hopefully). I have moved away past my next book already, and have just completed proofing it; I have considered not publishing it because of this. I also reminded myself, although the book is about my journey, others will benefit from it as they have the first one.

Every one of my articles or books represents another step along my path to enlightenment, and yet all those steps keep bringing me back to where I started and where I am now. I have not really traveled anywhere.

Enlightenment is the process, the path-we are all enlightened creatures. Enlightenment is not a place or the end of the trip. It is not possible to find it because it does not exist. Enlightenment comes to those who know they are already enlightened. It is the present moment of which you are aware of that is real. You do not live in the past, nor can you live in the future-there is only now--enlightenment is only now.

The universe is constantly moving and so does enlightenment. It is as though chasing your shadow-every time you move, so does your shadow.

One can only spend their time looking for enlightenment and it is something we do, because we can-it is a vocation with no diploma or degree. You will not find the gold at the end of the enlightened rainbow. It is no different than spending a life-time driving a cab, healing people, or building skyscrapers-it's just a job.

Trying to figure out who we are brings opportunities for exploration and exploitation-denying the obvious keeps us looking. All kinds of institutions and beliefs revolve around the misplaced conception that we are not really who we are. Many people will take advantage of this belief and make money off your ignorance. Life is all there is-it is this moment and your circumstances-this is enlightenment.

Every question I have asked, always leads to another question, and another, and the answer always leads back to me. The mystery of life is created by you-therefore the answers to the mystery you have created always lie with you. You are creating the questions and the answers.

It is your nature to create, and then ask yourself why you did it. The answer always leads back to the question-we do it because we can. As in the innocence of a small child, the answer is simple-I did it because! At that point we want to know what "because" is, and we make the whole thing too complicated.

It is not easy, and for most impossible to accept the obvious-you are already enlightened!