Happy #76: Say something good.

I felt disappointment tonight. I've been thinking it through--why I felt it, what caused it, how I could have avoided it, how I move on from feeling it, you know the drill.

I was talking with a friend and after a long pause in our back and forth I said, "Well, I guess the best thing (another pause) is just to think about something else!" We both laughed.

But it got me thinking. These thoughts, unemotional as they may read, came through very deep feelings. A person can seem Ok and not be...

I thought about people, the world, the human condition, and the human response to a world so full of noise.

Politics are in upheaval, people are going hungry and without housing (suffering true human need), the press is covering the stories they feel are important, television is covering whatever drives the ratings up, marketing is driven by what will sell (pushing production and consumption), magazines publish what will get people's attention (providing information and promoting entertainment), etc., etc., etc., blah, blah, blah...

The common thread? People.

We let ourselves get SO busy. And I get that. Distractions can be a good buffer from whatever. Meetings, meetings, and more meetings--all supposedly geared to meet the needs of people. Busyness. And yet, if you think about it, every one of those people in those meetings (or involved in that work) all have one basic need other than food, water, and shelter. They all want love. We all want love.

I'm not saying all the other matters of are no importance. I'm just saying that what matters most are the connections we make with people and the effort we extend in helping them feel worthwhile--at showing them love.

Do we engage enough with anyone to be certain they feel seen? That they feel like they matter for something to someone? Do we say or do anything to signal we care?

For reasons I won't go into I felt less than and not good enough tonight. I'm fairly certain you've felt it a time or two yourself.

But why do we? Would you want the little girl who showed up with her parents at an evening meeting to feel like she wasn't good enough because she was wearing her pink bubble slippers instead of fancy shoes?

Would you want me to feel not good enough?

I didn't think so. We'd want the little girl to know she's enough for all the same reasons I want you to know you are enough. Because you are.

You are enough. And so am I, come to that.

We speak and write about politics (well, I don't), we speak and write about information, we work and work and work trying to make a life that will matter for something. And in the end, the only thing that really matters is what we learned and how well we loved.

We make mistakes. It's how we learn.

"Mistakes are the portals to learning," wrote James Joyce. This earthly experience is about relationships and learning. I think you can do the math. You're good like that. :)

Trust the process.

Find that little someone wearing bubble slippers (she or he is in a grown up body and probably not actually wearing the slippers) and show your love. Say something good.

This is a bowl of chesnuts.


And this is what they looked like when I took them out of their shells.


I was on a walk a week or two ago with my friend Roma when we walked by a bunch that had fallen to the ground and broken out of their casings. Roma was shocked. Shocked. She said, "How could I get to this place in life and NOT have seen these before??" Good question. ;)

Roma, you weren't missing out on the chesnuts. But they were definitely missing out on you. :)

See how easy that was? Roma is smiling. And feeling loved. :D

Say something good.