What You Make of It
Life is not a coin toss. It’s not two different sides of the coin either. Life is a bundle of it all. It’s that rolled-into-oneness brilliance and burden. There’s no way we get white without black, dark without light, polka dots without stripes, green without envy, and yada without Yoda.
Cosmically we all got here and we’ll all move out. In the game of life, we may chalk it all up to gambling. Even I gambled literally once. I was eighteen. It was my first time in Vegas. I remember clearly extracting fifty dollars with conviction from the Caesars Palace casino ATM machine. Within a few short moments, I’d bet all my money at the roulette table and lost it all. I was done with casino gambling for good. But gambling as a whole is never done with us. It’s a thrill of life. And it’s entirely an addictive human quality. We gamble every millimeter of every day. We gamble even when we’re not meaning to, or with voracious appetite often of need or desire, if we’re not trained, nor experts. As Rumi and a wise friend Malek Houlihan (Jupiter Sunrise fame) sang with gusto we Gamble Everything for Love.
My recent few days made such a difference. That kind of difference where the bitter wind chills cold air didn’t stop me from short walkabouts to breathe fresh air. The type of difference where those tiny tentacles of grumpiness in the recesses of my brain were swooshed away by an array of rainbow-esque colored positivity drifting from the mouths of dear friends with whom I chose to spend time to meet for connection and networking. In the beginning, middle, and the end it’s all what you make of it.
‘It’ — The invisible imaginary friend or foe. The elephant in the room. The meaning of life, love, happiness, success, or Mad Lib your own word. ‘It’ makes or breaks your day, concentration, stamina, drive, and force field. ‘It’ lands you in love, lust, marriage, parenting, adoption, fertility implants, vasectomy, career joy or hell, scoring travel hacking points that make you one of the best travelers all who know you know, adventure beyond your own wildest beliefs, and sometimes calms the living daylights out of you too.
My point is all of it is ‘it’. So, if ‘it’ is what we’ve got, all we’ve got in the big picture essence, why not decipher the best of ‘it’! Your choice. My choice. We’ve all got choice on our side every step of the way. Choose wisely and I dare say it’s like gambling knowing the outcome. How’s that for odds in your favor!
That’s why my last few days mattered a tad more than some others that fly by. Not that flying by doesn’t have its own advantages with one of my infinitely popular foreign phrases: “Il dolce far niente” (English translation: The sweetness of doing nothing. My explanation being that space with oneself for the sake of doing whatever you enjoy easily.) So, with ease in mind, I’d like to share my takeaways from the gambling of my recent days in choosing to zone in with certain remarkable humans:
- Chasing vs. Not Chasing — Chase what you do want (in that healthy, sane sort of chasing way: dreams, goals, general amped up abundance for all). Do not chase what you do not want! What a waste of energy and time. We all live and learn by this code. We all fail at times by chasing that which in no way possible will ever serve us, or in which the thrust from all the madness takes down others (and city blocks, and… you get the idea- bad)!
- Details Allow Definition, but Also Develop Smiles — The finer things in life don’t always have to be what money may buy. Attention to details about what you love, or what anyone you pay close attention to may perk up about are finite bonding moments that don’t have to dwindle your bank account. An added bonus is the super smiles you receive from ‘knowing’ someone so well that you cause them to beam! (Sure, go for the big bucks to support your or someone else’s extravagant tastes too, but simply watch and replicate to connect.)
- Learning and Improvement are Lovers — You can do and become so much by spreading your wings to branch out unto the mammoth learning the world has to offer. It might be sewing a button to your own shirt, changing a tire, German, how to wash a Chow Chow in your tiny apartment, what plants you can eat from the forest, the musical tastes of traveling gypsies of the 14th Century, any computer coding, how to create an LLC, or the forbidden sexual positions of some ancient cultures (I threw this in for good measure, as I’m only assuming it’s a thing to learn). You only raise your own value through improvement, so might as well learn new things.
- Positives are the Not-So-Hidden Point — Behind every single negative, bump in the road, collision, or misshapen moment there is a positive just waiting to grab the bull by the horns with a huge “Hurrah” of happiness! Simply put, negativity is another giant drag on your timeline. The boss is a bear. The deadlines and work are a den of grizzlies who haven’t eaten in months. The boyfriend decided someone else was his flavor. The waiter screwed up the order…. On the other hand, you can get a massage after work and not answer emails until the next morning. You may use teamwork and outsourcing to support deadlines, so it’s not all on you. The handsome man that just picked up your wallet you dropped asked for your number. The waiter did bring that delicious wine, and the restaurant is so cozy inside from the winter insanity outside.
‘It’ defines you. ‘It’ can make or break you. I am part of a coalition placed here to aim to keep the happiness barometer on high. I want you to make the very best of ‘it’. I want me to be able to keep making the best of ‘it’. But, it’s a team effort. And I’m going to keep lobbing you options for pleasant alternatives until the day I’m not. It’s that easy. I want you to hold me as accountable as I aspire to hold you. We each hold the keys to our own path. My instincts are all about progress of the whole, in addition to my one little self. I will keep offering me to you be a thirst supporter for maximum life out of this living.
Take what you make of ‘it’ to lift you higher, and may that help shift our world to be badass beautifully better than an alien could ever crave to be.
