Skip to main content

Seeing 20/20 in 2020

It's hard to not feel helpless on this planet most days.  Or maybe more accurately, it is hard to feel at all.  What would happen if we actually put down our phones, stopped scrolling, drinking, eating, shopping, Insta-ing to just sit and allow ourselves to notice.....

what humans do to each other in the name of ideology...to our planet, to animals, to themselves. 

It's too much.  So we ostrich.  Because there is nothing you can do.  Have another cookie, a beer, a joint, go to sleep, take your meds, suck it up, carry on, hold your breath.....don't worry, it's just until you die.

I know it is only a day in the Gregorian calendar---bridging decades---but I can't help but find some significance in the fact that it is going to be 2020 in a few hours and maybe this year we take a very clear look ---at who we want to be.

So here it is. My intention.  I throw it out there, by the handful, into the wind,  like so much confetti and hope it carries far (biodegradable of course--and not rice--good lord not rice.)

BE HAPPY.  BE JOYFUL.  BE KIND.

Sounds simple.  It is.

What makes you happy?  Find it.  Do it.  Share it.  

We are all running on empty and expected to manage, or even excel--with a smile and great hair.    

If I am happy.  Even for an hour--what would that look like to those around me?  My energy.  My words.  My actions.  My intentions.  What does it look like if they are all coming from a place of happiness and joy?

Happy and joyful makes being kind easy. 

It's apropos it's 20/20.  Clarity is in order. 

Why don't we pursue happiness like we do our target weight, job title, GPA, social status or (insert random phone app game here)?  What would happen if we did?  


I know these things can create joy for me - music, dance, animals, trees, breezes, beach, water, fresh air, sunshine, warmth, eating, massages, learning, quiet, babies, phone chats with girlfriends, connecting one on one, kittens, snuggling my kids, writing, meditation, yoga, cooking, baking, playing an instrument in a band, directing theatre, travel, skating....

If I do these things, I can fill my tank with joy and happiness ---and by extension, be a kinder person.  By being kind, perhaps I can ease the burden others carry, which we can truly never know.  

I can't fix the world.  But if I can be happier, joyful and kind.  I can, shift my energy and that of those around me.  And it can spread.  And wouldn't that be a wonderful thing?  

A world with more happy people, being joyful and kind to one another.  

Start the list.  What makes you happy?  Find it.  Do it.  Share it.  







 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mind the Gap

I have been browsing my writing. Just a few samples here and there. Noting the gaps--like the big one where I posted on the eve of 2020 not knowing a global pandemic would shut down the world and then didn't post again until just last week. Feels like that would have been a good time to write. During a pandemic.  Write about survival mode, collecting oldest and his gf from their rental to camp out in our basement bedroom for five months, the middle home as college was closed and R and I getting a week to figure out how to be online college instructors. There were days of washing groceries, yelling at my mom and step-dad to get their asses home from Florida before the boarder closed and scouring the internet for toilet paper and masks. It was exhausting and scary and bitterness flowed unhampered at every #qualitytimewiththekiddos" posting of crafts and puzzles and tiktok dances from those who found themselves at home, not working.  It was all hands on deck at our place wi...
Post a Comment
There is more good stuff--keep reading»

Guidepost #7 Cultivating Play and Rest

The sky, dark blue fading to purple, then  pink and orange---in this instant --- it is hard to tell if it is the morning or night.  Perhaps in contradiction to the title, I am up early to write.  This is my playtime.  Writing is something that brings me both joy and a sense of accomplishment.  The Adult Day Treatment Program was my what kept me anchored to reality during the early months of my collapse.  Learning about anxiety, medications, depression, relaxation all made sense tome--had value--and could be immediately applied to my situation.  I took copious notes, I participated in class, I reflected, I did what I know best---see problem---tackle problem. What was difficult for me, was understanding the value of our "recreation" hour (a.k.a. crafts or games). I remember feeling a bit like I was in a movie or on some gag reel and I was the only one not in on the joke as people moved to pick up half painted wooden b...
Post a Comment
There is more good stuff--keep reading»

Keeping Afloat in Darkness - When Robin Williams is Gone

A few weeks ago Robin Williams was everywhere you looked. People were desperate for details; to find the one thing that assured them that his situation was so different from theirs that they are safe; that it could never be them. But if you suffer from depression, the suicide of such a brilliant, successful, individual; part of our lives for so many years and responsible for so many laughs; looks like a leak in your boat. A friend asked me, "Ok but no one knows what the future holds.  Could he not see that?" For someone drowning in the dark spiral of depression, there is no future. There is only now. There is only nothing.  The boat is gone.  You are under. It is not about your spouse or your friends or your kids or career or fans or dogs or anything.  When the darkness squeezes it is all about now.  And now is nothing.  It is bleak and empty and so dark, you cannot see a bottom, or edges or surface ---just darkness. "Some...
4 comments
There is more good stuff--keep reading»