Find the Silver Lining

I posted my first blog, “Experiencing Joy,” on July 23, 2013.  In two weeks we will celebrate the fifth anniversary of that earth-shattering occasion. I have posted a blog every Tuesday morning for the past five years.  That’s more than 250 individual personal essays averaging five hundred words each, or more than 125,000 words total – enough to fill a four hundred page book.

If a journey of ten thousand miles begins with a single step, then writing a four hundred page book begins with a single word.  The journey of your life initially began when you were born, but a new journey begins every single moment throughout your lifetime.

My very first blog concluded, “…when you experience joy in your life, what else do you really need?  Let’s turn on the joy.”

I still like that idea, and hope that you have done exactly that.  But the devil is in the details. Since it’s not possible for any of us to relive any past moment in our lives, the very best we can do is to pay strict attention to “right now.”  We have to renew our joy daily.  It doesn’t just happen.

Living your life is like reading a news story.  You can’t control the story.  You can, however, to a much greater degree than you may think, control your reaction to the story.

To consistently feel joy we have to intentionally work at finding the silver lining.

Many years ago my friend John called to tell me he had been fired from his job. He was distraught. Losing a job can be upsetting at best and devastating for an entire family at worst.

John and I met at our favorite restaurant for dinner. When I walked in he was staring into space.

“Congratulations” I said.

“What do you mean, ‘congratulations’?  I just lost my job.”

“John, you have complained about that job for ten years, and now you have the opportunity to spend your time doing something you’ll enjoy a lot more.  You’ve been handed your freedom.”

I will not minimize John’s experience.  Stuff happens.  Serious stuff happens.  Sometimes it happens more than once in a single day, and it’s perfectly normal to feel scared, angry, or hopeless.  It’s perfectly normal, but not required.

Within a few months John found a number of silver linings.  He began to work with animals – something he has always loved. One project involved bringing dogs into prisons to cheer up both the stray dogs and the incarcerated men.  He also spent more quality time with his wife, cooking and taking walks in the beautiful hills near their home. Six months later he admitted to me that he was much happier.  And so was his wife.

If you look closely there are silver linings everywhere.  I still remember the first movie I ever saw, a 1946 Disney film that featured the song “Everybody’s Got a Laughing Place.”  I still recall a portion of the joyful lyrics from seventy years ago:

Everybody’s got a laughing place,

A laughing place to go “ho ho.”

Take that frown, turn it upside down,

And you’ll find yours I know ho ho.

I know you can find your own silver linings, and I’ll stand by my statement from my first blog, “…when you experience joy in your life, what else do you really need?  Let’s turn on the joy.”

And let’s do it right now.

Alan