MAKE EACH DAY A MIRTHDAY
12-31-04

 

Tomorrow is the day for resolutions and I am making one to have a year of fun and joy in 2005. In case you didn’t know, fun is a lighter form of joy and joy is a deeper form of fun.

 

It’s a spectrum thing, fun at one end and joy at the other. I will be sliding like a child up and down the whole spectrum and lassoing an occasional rainbow.

 

You can call me narcissistic and other long nasty words but every day in 2005 is going to be my mirthday. I am tired of walking around with the world on my shoulders. I am tired of pushing around a wheelbarrow full of the world’s worries. I’d rather load it up with Cracker Jacks and stop every day to eat the Cracker Jacks one at a time until I find the goodie in the box. No day is without a goodie but you won’t find it if you aren’t eating the Cracker Jacks.

 

“Oh, what about your responsibilities?” you may be thinking.” Surely you are not going to be eating Cracker Jacks when you need to be doing things to improve the world?” Yes, my friend, that’s exactly what I am going to do. Tell me, have you ever seen a picklemouth improve anything in the world? Any responsibilities I can meet with joy, I will handle. I will even learn new tricks to make responsibilities fun.

 

Washing dishes was once just a responsibility. Then Shinzen Young introduced me to a powerful, fun technique called “mindfulness”and it empowered me to turn dishwashing into a joy. Just by being completely mindful of each little part of the process.

 

If your work is mainly mental, doing a manual thing can actually refresh the mind. He says “slow mindfulness” is even more effective. Just go ridiculously slow, totally mindful of what you are doing. A nice side effect is you will seldom break a dish. It’s when we rush that we make a mess of things.

 

I didn’t quit smoking by gritting my teeth. I realized the coughing and hoarseness was about to take away my music. So I held in my mind the idea of saving what voice I had left and each day I listened as my voice cleared until one day I could actually sing a complete song without turning my head to the side and doing a mini-cough. I had abused my lungs so bad that I would do mini-coughs within lines, not verses. The first time I sang a whole song without coughing, I felt like popping a cork on a bottle of champagne.

 

I quit George Dickel by having fun. I turned in my two-week notice to bandleader Al Harvey because I felt sure I wouldn’t enjoy performing cold sober. In two weeks, I asked him to let me stay. I had discovered the fun of playing my music completely aware rather than looking through a haze. It was more fun.

 

Don’t get the idea that I am going to try to quit things this year. My intent is just to have fun and joy for their own sake --to bask in it, to dive in it and swim to the bottom, to quit thinking the world will go over the waterfall if I don’t grit my teeth and chew my jaw. Can you imagine anything funnier than the thought that my teeth-gritting and jaw-chewing would do anything at all for the world? See, I already have my first fun thought to launch into the new year!

 

“Surely you are going to pray,” I hear an unctuous one say. Yes, I am. I am going to pray for my cup to run over with joy. Maybe it will bubble up a smile on a weary face.

 

I tried toting the world around and it didn’t do a thing for anyone. It just wore out my knees. It’s time for a happy new year!

 

And I wish you one, too.

 

Check out Dalton's website at www.daltonroberts.com. His writings are gathered at www.ipsfeatures.com.