HAPPY MUSINGS

Happy Musings is a newspaper feature syndicated by King Features that I create each day to remind us all that “Life is wonderful!” I offer it here to brighten your day. Please share it with your friends.

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10/2008 (Life/)

Mary Poppins was Right!
"Fun is the best taskmaster!"
Mary Poppins was right! She knew that “a spoon full of sugar makes the medicine go down.” To her sugar meant some kind of fun. Fun is the best taskmaster! Kids know it. Teachers and parents know it. Now, to act on this knowing when it has to do with your own activities, is a good habit to have. It always comes down to attitude. No matter how you try to get around it, it is attitude that makes the difference in the doings that we have to do.

A youngish woman came into my gallery this morning with a definite intention. “Give me that one about the dirty laundry!”

I pulled the piece of gift art off of the wall. She explained that her circumstances had changed recently and she no longer had a housekeeper, one who did her laundry. It was now her task to care for the family’s clothes. She said that she had never bothered about her laundry room in the past – no frills, no decorations of any kind. But now that she was doing the laundry, she wanted to spice up this activity and wanted this particular saying on the wall of that little room.

As I wrapped the framed piece, I read it again. “Dirty laundry reminds me that someone has worked, someone has played, someone has eaten, someone has slept, and someone has enjoyed their day just as they will tomorrow if someone like me takes care with what they have to wear.” This particular thought gives a whole new meaning to doing laundry. It may not be the most fun job in a home, but it is necessary and if you are elected, it still can be joyful.

We are the ones who put the fun in our lives, whether it’s on the job or at play.

10/0908 (Love)

Love the Way It Is
"To love the way it is, is wise. To love the way it isn't, is just as wise."
Wise is good. To gather wisdom is really wise. One of the wisest people I know is Therese Furino Boni, an older French-Italian grand dame. She taught me one of the wisest things I have ever learned – to see things as they are. With our wishes and desires we tend to put a negative or positive spin on things. Yet, the way it is, is always just that. By placing no judgment on something or someone, a person sees clearly things as they are and is able to deal with all kinds of situations freely, spontaneously and in the “now”.

I took that idea of viewing things as they are to heart. I learned to love that point of view. I learned to love the way it is, which included loving the way it isn’t.

I could see this concept so clearly when I taught tennis. I myself had been raised to be a champion in the traditional way and therefore had a perfectionist’s point of view. I could see the interference this made in everything I did – judging everything, wanting something one way when it wasn’t. Then later, after my competitive days, as I taught tennis I could see the judgment my students made on his or her shots with the accompanying up or down emotions. The ball was not just hit into the net. It was hit into the net “Ugh!” The ball was not hit out. It was hit out “Damn!” And, of course, with each judgment and change of emotional state a person’s attention is lost on that which is always moving and changing – the ball.

That’s the way it is with life – moving and changing. Just when you think you’ve got your ducks in a row, life changes the line up.

So the solution, it seems to me, is to love things the way they are. That’s the wisest point of view that I’ve come across. If you find something better, let me know!

10/02/08 (Ki/ndness)


Loving Kindness, Got some?
"Loving kindness spreads like wildfire when given a little spark."
Do not underestimate the power of loving kindness. Poor humanity, it’s not very developed as yet. We’re not far beyond our animal nature. That’s the one that is me, me, me – fearful and selfish. But our next step, I believe, is to just reach a level of “loving kindness” universally. It doesn’t seem like asking very much, but it’s what we need to do now – to operate with loving kindness in all our activities.

I remember as a young person being in the presence of some very wise people. And, it was their opinion that loving kindness was humanity’s next level of evolvement. It takes a long while for everyone to get on the same page, but that’s the page we need to get on. As we can see from what goes on around the world and even in this country there is much to be done to achieve this fairly elementary level of brotherly love.

A few years ago there was a clever ad on TV from the Almond Association. They were trying to bring awareness to the fact that there were a lot of almonds to be had and we should help out. A man stood up to his waist in almonds and held up a can of almonds, stating, “All we ask is one can a week.”

That’s what we need to do for each other on this subject – “All we ask is to act with loving kindness.”

The drive and ambition to get ahead sometimes leaves kindness in its wake. We might be benefiting ourselves in a greater way by putting kindness first. To get ahead, might just be to take a step back into kindness. It does spread like wildfire when given a little spark.

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