Over the past few months I have found a new motto, “I will only focus on the positive. I will only spread joy.”
So often we get consumed by complaints, usurped by judgments, nailed by negativity. But where is the love? If we aren’t spreading love how do we expect to get it back? If we don’t forgive and move on, we will stay stagnant.
Warrior Two
My yoga instructor was speaking to us as we were in sweating it out in warrior two pose. She said, “Many of us tend to reach forward in this pose, some of us reach backwards in this pose. But the truth to this pose lies in staying centered. Because you can’t control the future, and you can’t control the past. You can only focus on the present.”
As they say, “the present is the greatest gift of all. That’s why they call it the present.”
Every day is a new day and we have to use these days wisely. There are a limited number of hours we are blessed with on this earth. Use them to spread love. Use them to focus on the positive things in your life.
Last week I did two things to spread joy: I traveled to the YWCA to surprise a young lady with a scholarship she had won from Wilmington University. As the tears rolled down her face, my heart was just filled with happiness. “This is going to change my life,” she whispered. This woman had been beaten and abused. This woman had lost her path, she had lost her faith. She had nothing.
But she got up and she worked hard. She did the best she could to provide for her four children and now she was being rewarded. And I am sure she will go far. I’m sure she will be the woman she was always meant to be.
That same week, on Saturday, I attended a work event called Operation Success, dedicated to our military service members, veterans and their families. Several veterans came to speak to me about how much they enjoyed the event.
Spread joy.
One woman stopped me in the parking lot.
“I just thank God,” she said. “I rented this car to be here today. And I am so glad I did.” She wanted to give me a hug. She said she had just moved here and was a US. Army veteran who decided to go back to school. “I had no idea there were these kind of resources for us veterans. I have no friends or family here. It was just so nice for Wilmington University to do something like this. I just thank God.”
I watched her as she drove off in her rented SUV. She stopped to pick up a fellow veteran who was waiting at the bus stop.
And that was when it hit me:
So many of our veterans come home to nothing. They are treated like dirt, find themselves unemployed, homeless, far away from their loved ones. Here were two veterans right in front of me, both jobless, both without any mode of transportation. It was just sad.
And yet, in some small way, I had…or at least my employer had, touched their lives.
These are moments I’ll never forget.
And spreading joy and happiness is a far greater reward than any currency you could ever give me.
So I encourage you all:
Make Some Happy Today And Always Live Your Life in This Very Moment.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShVPjO-mgu0]
Make Someone Happy – By Bobby Darin Lyrics
Make someone happy,
Make just one someone happy;
Make just one heart the heart you sing to.
One smile that cheers you,
One face that lights when it nears you,
One girl you’re ev’rything to.
Fame if you win it,
Comes and goes in a minute.
Where’s the real stuff in life to cling to?
Love is the answer,
Someone to love is the answer.
Once you’ve found her, build your world around her.
Make someone happy,
Make just one someone happy,
And you will be happy, too.
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