Don't look for joy, open up to it

When I hear people (or myself) say that they are looking for joy, peace, meaning, happiness...I have to take a pause.
Although I don't totally disagree with this idea of "looking" for joy and meaning, I have to admit this phrase evokes a bit of frustration because it describes my current state as lacking these qualities and suggests that joy and happiness are hiding...and if I don't find them, they will elude me.

What I feel, what I have experienced and what I have grown to truly believe is that joy, meaning, peace, love (all the good stuff) exist right here, right now, all the time.  Love is all around. Peace is available always. Meaning does not exist when you find it - it was there all the time. As is happiness.

Rather than looking for happiness or peace, I want to be open to seeing the peace and happiness that is here now. I want to change how I see, how I perceive, so that I can have access to these qualities.

I don't have to go looking for them, they are not hiding. I  don't have to search, in hopes that I look in the right spot at the right time and find them.

I choose to open my perspective, to tune my senses, to focus my vision so that I can see, feel and experience the joy, peace, meaning and happiness that are here now. 

What is perfectly right, joyful, meaningul, peaceful about this exact moment? I am thirsty, and I just grabbed a glass of water. That's just rigth in this moment.