One regret dear world, that I am determined not to have when I am lying on my deathbed is that I did not kiss you enough. –Hafiz of Persia
Gratitude is actually the most basic and simple of all positive practices, but most of us want to complicate the simple, we just can’t believe it is that simple. A recent revelation in my summer of gratitude demonstrated this clearly. It seems so basic as to be ridiculous, but really is a culmination of all the listening and letting go that helped me to this place- so here it is, just start your day knowing that all you have to do that day is enjoy it. Act as if it is the last day you have to do whatever you do, love whoever you love and just enjoy it. I know it sounds ridiculously simple, but like I said, we want to complicate the simple.
Said differently but with the same intent, Eric Schmidt, Founder and Chairman of Google was quoted, “Find a way to say yes to things. Say yes to invitations to a new country, say yes to meet new friends, say yes to learn something new. Yes is how you get your first job, and your next job and your spouse and even your kids. Even if it feels a bit edgy, a bit out of your comfort zone, saying yes means that you will do something new, meet someone new and make a difference. Yes lets you stand out in the crowd, be the optimist, see the glass half full, be the one that everyone comes to. Yes keeps us all young.”
Not surprising from a guy who has reinvented how we find and organize the world in ways that no one could have imagined even ten years ago. This is what I am always thinking of about love. How can I understand love in a way that is new and vital and deep enough in me that I can transform the way other people think about it. How can I say yes to what is in me and love myself enough to put it out there.
The other day as I was perusing the shelves of our local Borders going out of business sale and I witnessed the dozens, maybe hundreds of other books written about all the same topics that fascinate me, I thought to myself, why am I so intent on adding one more voice. First I found some other author’s names that I wanted to get to know and interview and then I got a little discouraged.
But as I muddled around with the weight of this, I realize that the work is the gift I give myself. Anything we do with love, whether it be plumbing, selling, managing, writing, care-taking, done with love actually offers a transmission of goodness that changes us. Then it multiples in everyone it touches.
