Disney Leadership Keynote Speaker
Five daily blogs about life's 5 big choices on five interconnected sites.
“Happiness is your nature. It is not wrong to desire it. What is wrong is seeking it outside when it is inside”. — Ramana Maharishi
It may take a lifetime to learn this.
But learn it we must, or we will never be happy.
Profoundly simple. Simply profound.
Carpe diem!
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“The “word” happiness would lose it’s meaning if it were not balanced by sadness”. — Carl Jung
I once read that we should be kind to everyone, because everyone is going through some sort of hell.
I’ve found this to be true. Seriously.
With that in mind, I hope to have a really happy day, but if I don’t, I’m going to try to remember that sadness is a very real part of life.
Just like right now, as I type this from the porch, it’s completely dark outside. Because of this, I guarantee you I will appreciate the sunlight all the more.
Ya with me?
Carpe diem, jeff noel 🙂
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Happiness in Mid Life.
“The happiness of life is made up of the minute fractions – the little, soon-forgotten charities of a kiss or a smile, a kind look or heartfelt compliment”. — Samuel Taylor Coleridge, English poet
Everyday, I challenge myself to do as many “seemingly insignificant” things I can to bring happiness to others.
My mid-life challenge? It’s easy for me, with people I can see. It’s much more difficult, so far, to do this with people I can’t physically see – like family and friends in others states or towns.
I pray I get better at this. The excuse I often lean on is, “It’s a two-way street, and it’s also their responsibility to reach out to me too. So, if they’re not doing it, than maybe I don’t need to either”.
What a pathetic load of garbage. This is not the attitude I want my son (nine) to remember me having.
Looks like I have a lot of work to do this week. And I better get started. My mid-life happiness depends on it.
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Roger Bannister, the first human to run one mile in less than four-minutes, said:
“I sometimes think that running has given me a glimpse of the greatest freedom a man can ever know, because it results in the simultaneous liberation of both the mind and body….. The runner does not know how or why he runs. He only knows that he must run….. We run, not because it is doing us good, but because we enjoy it and cannot help ourselves”. — 1956
Prior to 1956, people said running under four-minutes was essentially impossible for the human body to withstand. There were others, like Roger Bannister, who knew it was inevitable.
Simply a matter of time before the impossible becomes possible, and then, before you know it, the impossible becomes business as usual.
Sometimes, I think certain things are impossible at mid-life.
Then I think about people like Roger Bannister.
And then I start to wonder when it will simply be, business as usual.
Make it a GREAT day, and may all your impossible dreams come true. Carpe diem, jeff noel 🙂
Yes. It’s a line in a song from Jimmy Buffett’s CD, Coconut Telegraph.
“The weather is here, wish you were beautiful”.
I used to travel all over the country, from 18 years old to 24. Traveled by bus, car, foot and bicycle.
One year, I wound up in Pullman, Washington and called it home for a while. My best friend was a Residence Hall Director at Washington State University.
Anyway, back to the point of this post. In the 1970’s & 80’s, I was an avid post card sender. It fit my budget. 🙂
Whenever I was somewhere warm, and sometimes cold but spectacular, and my friends back in Pennsylvania were cold and gloomy, I’d send them a post card.
Californian Coast, Glacier National Park, Grand Canyon, Key West, Yellowstone, Bourbon Street, Times Square, Appalachian Trail – you get the picture, right?
So yesterday, I’m enjoying lunch with my family and Jimmy Buffett’s song is playing. My wife had just told our son some stories about the post cards she’d get from me, many ending with, “The weather is here, wish you were beautiful”.
My son asked me, “So you insulted Mommy”?
I said, “No son, that phrase comes from a special place in my heart. It may sound weird to say that to someone, but I only say it to people I care about”.
While it’s hard to know exactly who reads Mid Life Celebration, I do hope you readers know that this site is dependent on people who want to make a difference in this world.
On the journey to finish the last part of my life, I want to make as big a difference as possible. And, I’m looking for a few Baby Boomers and Gen-Xer’s to pitch in.
How could I not care about that?
Carpe diem, jeff noel 🙂
PS. I never liked Jimmy Buffett because my college buddies, who liked Buffett, were so fanatical about his music, I was put off by it. Years later, as a bartender in Moscow, Idaho (home to University of Idaho), I fell in love with his music too.