Happiness IS not just one thing. Today, I invite you to think of happiness as a muscle. Apply that muscle-knowledge to enhance this message. If you’ve been exercising that muscle, then you already belong to the happy crowd. I commend you. I respect you. Happiness begins the moment you begin. It also keeps on growing the more you flex it. Nothing to lose. Read with an open mind.
Take my current circumstances for example. Up until a few days ago, people loved me; today I feel that I’m their target. Up until a few days ago, I felt I was so-so, not bad -- an okay Writer. Today I feel like I’m a fraud, a failure. ... I was feeling rotten therefore I saw things muddled through my already muddled lenses. I was a stinking dead fish.
Words, believe it or not, hurt deeply. A heart that weeps the life of a honey bee will undoubtedly find its heart shattered to pieces by mean words that hurt another human being. I ask that you be kind to all living things. Good living is not just about doing good but about not doing bad to all living things. If you have nothing good to say about someone, please, for the transcience of being, for the preciousness that life is, treat your life and that of everyone else with reverence and compassion. Curb your tongue.
Then I came to Japan. And I collapsed. Exhausted. I became undone only to find a wellspring of new energy that slowly seeped into me. Slowly, I started to deflate. I heard birds chirping, cicadas singing their joyful songs, people conversing and laughing softly and life for me turned into a slow waltz. It can happen to you too. Promise.
A few decades ago, back when I was living flamboyantly in Chicago, I was introduced to a food extravaganza that could have defrocked any home-grown priest in my small country of Belize. Newly arrived and having never had a real hamburger — and by real, I mean a whopper from The House of the great whopper — I was already sold on the American staple. To my defense, let me tell you that I ate with gusto, actually licked my fingers, again thinking of my upbringing of waste-not.
A short message today, to take you into a glorious new week. “Love isn’t a state of perfect caring. Love is an active verb, like ‘struggle.’ To love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way he or she is, right here and now.” — Mr. Fred Rogers
What a perfect coincidence is what I’ve come to think. Yes, it makes perfect sense. That witching hour is karma. What precision. What joy.
In the 1990s I was a new mother raising my kids in a land so foreign than my own that tuning in to the way I saw my mommy-friends do it turned to be the new normal I wanted to imitate. I tried the mamachari... "The mamachari is a cultural icon, it’s the Japanese equivalent of the family station wagon. It’s the family workhorse used on shopping runs, for riding to the local station, taking the kids to school or picking them up from sports practice. Without it families around the country would be in a right pickle. "— Byron Kidd
Remembering something similar that happened to me a very long time ago when I came to Japan, I roared uncontrollably with my own bout of laughter. Words got stuck in my throat and with more to do than to just wait for his mother to recover from the laughter, my young man hung up on me.
Each of us is good at our core. We come from different walks of life; we know about our rights, justice, and how to set boundaries. We also know that doing good deeds makes us feel good. But did you also know that this feel-good emotion arises from compassion? We all came bearing compassion. But, we lost it? Let me tell you how to get it back.
I know that some of you reading this article today are feeling beat, depressed, disillusioned about things like your children’s prom as early as next month, perhaps; their upcoming class trips, graduations, and moving plans — that are yet to happen in the summer months. Now that we’re committed to living in the present, shouldn’t we be letting go of worrying over things that have yet to come to pass? Let’s not rush things. Instead, I ask that you put your hands together for the young ones, like yours in your homes, who are braving it now, here in Japan. Right now these young kids are living through those same milestone events that are yet to come in your area.
It was no fun being ripped away from you so unexpectedly. I missed so many milestones. I missed you! But now I'm back, just in time for Easter Monday. I wish to continue to forge ahead with the beautiful relationship we've started and in my most ordinary of ways, try to add value to your days every time I send you an email. Thank you for still being here. I appreciate you and wish you Miracles.